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'Dangerous' pothole on busy A road takes out five cars in the space of an hour

The pothole was located on Stoke’s A34 (Google)
The pothole was located on Stoke’s A34 (Google)

Residents have reacted with fury after a pothole in Stoke took out five cars within the space of a single hour.

Motorists were forced to swerve at the last minute in a bid to avoid the pothole, located on the A34 Southbound in Trent Vale.

But not everyone managed to take the same action in time, and ended up with flat tyres – or even worse.

Nurse Julie Reed was leaving work on Sunday night when he turned onto the A34 and collided with the pothole, the biggest she had ‘ever seen’.

The incident resulted in a broken alloy on her car, and she had to retrieve a piece of metal from the road after it flew off her car.

‘It was a complete blowout and one piece of metal flew off my car. I managed to steer it onto the inside lane and pull over’, the 48-year-old told the Stoke Sentinel.

The pothole (not pictured) damaged up to five cars an hour (REX)
The pothole (not pictured) damaged up to five cars an hour (REX)

‘It had broken my alloy and It had ripped my tyre. I got out of the car in a panic and I retrieved the piece of metal that had snapped off.’

‘As I was waiting for assistance within 10 minutes another car hit the pothole and had a complete blowout and broken alloy’, she added.

After Julie’s incident, a policeman arrived to cordon off the pothole with cones.

‘The pothole had taken out five cars in the space of an hour. We measured it at seven inches deep. It was huge. This has to be the biggest one I have ever seen’, she added.

‘It is dangerous, I feel very lucky that I didn’t have a serious accident. The pothole needs to be worked on ASAP as I’m worried for the safety of other motorists as I’m on the receiving end on what comes through the theatres. This will actually kill someone.’

Stoke-on-Trent City Council has now confirmed the repair of the pothole.

‘Some sections of the A34 are inside the city boundary and we will be resurfacing them imminently’, said Councillor Daniel Jellyman.

‘Following the report of this incident we had a team out in the early hours of this morning carrying out repairs on the road and improving safety.’

In 2015, Freedom of Information requests revealed that the top three worst roads in the country were all in the north-west, with Cottage Lane in Lancashire taking the top spot, pulling in 271 complaints over the year.

Second in the complaints department is Liverpool Road (A57) in Salford, with 188 complaints while Chester Road in Cheshire East drew 162 moans from fed-up residents.

Potholes cost UK drivers almost £684 million in car repairs annually, with one pothole compensation claim made every 17 minutes, according to the AA.