Mother speaks of anger and upset after Great Barton potholes accident writes off car

A family have said their Easter was ‘ruined’ after they hit potholes on a country road that caused damage so bad it wrote off the car.

Karleigh Francis, 34, her two boys and her mum Leigh Murray, 57, had been travelling to Lowestoft, where Leigh lives, on Good Friday to enjoy precious time together for the holiday when the accident happened on Fornham Road, Great Barton, near Bury St Edmunds.

With ‘no other option’ but to go through the potholes due to traffic, Karleigh’s Ford Fiesta Ghia hit the holes, causing severe damage to two wheels, as well as damage to the vehicle’s suspension.

Karleigh, who lives in Birmingham, and her mum waited for nearly four hours by the roadside for the AA to turn up, with the boys, aged seven and nine, picked up after three hours by Leigh’s husband who had to travel from Lowestoft.

As well as the car being a write off, Karleigh, who is recovering from breast cancer, said her insurance cost had doubled as she is deemed at fault for the accident and she had lost her no claims.

The loss of Karleigh’s car also meant Leigh had a 7.5-hour round trip in her car on Tuesday to get her daughter and grandsons home to Birmingham.

Karleigh, who works in a secondary school supporting children with special educational needs, described what had happened as a ‘nightmare’.

“I feel like I still cannot get over it,” she said. “I still keep dreaming about it. It’s horrible.

“My two boys were upset about it, but the biggest impact was on my nine year old who has autism. He was panicking and crying. He thought we were stuck there.”

Leigh, a deputy headteacher, said it had been ‘very stressful’ and the incident did ‘ruin’ their Easter.

She added: “Obviously Karleigh just took on the potholes rather than crash. Somebody could swerve and end up having a really serious accident. We did say at least we are all in one piece.”

The family ended up on Fornham Road as Google had diverted them due to traffic.

Leigh and her daughter thanked the ‘wonderful’ Adrian Graves and his wife, who live near the scene, for their help on the day, allowing the car to be moved to their driveway and Adrian even drove them to Bungay where they were met by Leigh’s father-in-law for the rest of the journey to Lowestoft.

Adrian said he did what he hoped anybody else would do on a Bank Holiday.

Speaking of the problems with potholes on the roads, he said: “Somebody needs to be called to account over this.”

Karleigh, a single parent, spoke of her anger over the accident, adding: "I had no option. It was either cause a crash or ruin my car - that makes me feel angry and upset.

"I'm a cautious driver. I never speed and always make sure I drive safely. My car was my freedom."

Speaking of the larger of the two potholes she hit, she said: "I understand they [potholes] do happen, but that one's a ridiculous size. It's dangerous for that road. It's a high speed road [60mph] and it's narrow so if you have a car coming in the opposite direction you haven't any room to move over."

She added she purposefully wasn't travelling at 60 along the road.

Karleigh said she would be complaining to Suffolk Highways, whom she wants to claim responsibility for the accident.

A Suffolk Highways spokesperson said the reported defect was due to be repaired today.

They added: "Since the beginning of the year, 6,144 potholes have been repaired, which is over 1,000 more than the same period last year.

"In addition to responding to customer reports, safety inspections take place daily across Suffolk to identify highway issues which need repair.

"We encourage members of the public to continue reporting any road defects to us via our highways reporting tool."

According to the highways reporting tool, potholes where Karleigh's accident happened had been reported previously.