It is estimated that there are around 25 million potholes on South Africa’s roads, which represents a 67% increase in the past five years. This means that hitting a pothole and sustaining damage to your vehicle is a very real possibility.
While potholes can easily cause damage to tyres and rims, they can also cause damage to other parts of your vehicle including the suspension and steering.
Tyres are the most common victims as hitting potholes can lead to punctures, bulging or even flat tyres while wheel rims can be bent or dented. Cars with lower ground clearance are susceptible to body damage.
While hitting a pothole and sustaining damage to your vehicle is sometimes unavoidable there are ways to minimise damage and avoid hitting potholes.
Stay alert
Avoiding distractions such as looking at your cell phone and remaining alert with your eyes on the road scanning for obstacles and holes will give you more time to manoeuvre around or avoid potholes. Reducing your speed, especially when driving on bad roads will also give you substantially more time to react accordingly.
Check your tyre pressures
Ensuring that your tyres are correctly inflated will assist in reducing damage from hitting potholes. Correctly inflated tyres will cushion much of the impact. If your tyre pressure is too low, there is a bigger chance that the pothole will collide with the surface of the rim. Similarly overinflated tyres will be less likely to absorb shock, both within the tyre and throughout the vehicle’s suspension, which is just as dangerous.
Avoid puddles
Avoid driving through puddles at all costs. Potholes will fill up with water and what might seem like a small puddle could be a deep pothole underneath. Changing a flat tyre in the rain is also a dangerous and unpleasant experience. When driving in wet weather it is important to reduce your speed and to make use of your wipers and demister to optimise visibility in wet weather in order to be able to spot the puddles and potholes before it is too late.
Maintain a safe following distance
Maintaining a safe following distance between yourself and the car ahead of you is critical to being able to spot potholes and give yourself enough time to react. Also avoid blindly following the car in front of you, rather give yourself some space to be able to scan the road ahead and plot your own route around potholes.
Stay in your lane
While it might be tempting to cross over to the other side of the road in order to avoid potholes this is an extremely dangerous practice and being involved in a head on collision is a much more dangerous situation than hitting in a pothole. If it is impossible to avoid potholes in your lane, rather slow down completely, put on your hazards and drive around the potholes while remaining in your lane or over the potholes at a very slow speed. While driving over potholes at a very slow speed will be uncomfortable, it shouldn't cause any damage to your vehicle.
What should you do if you do hit a pothole
If hitting a pothole is inevitable grip your steering wheel and slow down but release the brakes just before impact as this will allow the suspension to decompress freeing up all of the suspension travel to absorb the impact.
If you do hit a pothole, it is important to inspect your car as soon as it is safe to do so. Motorists should closely inspect tyres and rims as they are often the first to suffer from the impact. It is also important to pay attention to how your car handles, factors such as unusual vibrations, the car pulling to one side, or a change in the steering position or how it feels, could indicate damage to your vehicles alignment or steering and suspension components.
If you notice damage to your vehicle, it is important to document it as best as possible by taking multiple photographs of the visible damage. Take photos of the pothole itself and the surrounding area too as this will be helpful evidence if you need to file an insurance claim or report the pothole to the municipality. Make sure to also record details of the incident, including the exact location, time of day and weather conditions.