Fallen lamppost leaves motorist with £1,000 bill

SHOCKED driver Nick Gore didn’t see the light as he drove home along a country lane....and ran slap bang into a concrete lamp post sprawled across the road.

It left him with a £1,000 damage bill to his black Mazda car, so Nick, with only third party insurance cover, fired off a  claim to Rotherham Borough Council.

He believed poor maintenance had caused the lamp post to topple on a night of high winds.

But another shock was in store for 20-year-old scrap dealer Nick when the council rejected his claim saying it was not their fault because they had proof that vandals had pushed over the lamp post.

Now furious Nick, from Old Ravenfield, has accused the council of “trying to wriggle off the hook.”

And to support his case, he has taken photographs of another lamp post on the same stretch of road which he says is leaning at a dangerous angle.

He was driving along Hollings Lane, Ravenfield at 7.45pm as night was falling when he was suddenly confronted by the lamp post in front of him.

“ I collided with the lamp post causing damage to my car but another driver then drove straight over the post causing considerablely more damage to his car.”

Nick immediately sprang into action to prevent more drivers coming to grief and ran up the road, waving his illuminated mobile phone as a warning light, and managed to stop around ten more cars from running into the post.

He called police who were on the scene within 15 minutes and sealed  off the road.

Said Nick: “I have been landed with a £1,000 bill for  something I do not feel was my fault and I feel the council are trying to wriggle out of paying up.

“Since the accident I have passed a claim for car repairs onto the council who in turn have passed it to a claims agency. I believe it was improper maintenance that caused the lamp post to fall over.

 “So far nothing has been paid and they are refusing to pay as they say they have proof that vandals pushed down the lamp post and therefore its not their fault.

“They will not provide me with any evidence to support this theory.

“There was no one else around at the time and I saw no evidence of vandals.

“Also down this same road there is another lamp post that leans dangerously over the road.”

 Allan Lewis, principal street lighting engineer for Rotherham Borough Council, said the incident was unfortunate but said the electrician called out to Hollings Lane that evening was informed by the police that they thought the column had been pushed over by vandals.

He added: "The column was not visibly rotten nor had the concrete disintegrated at all, which is in accordance with our inspection records.

“All our 36,000 lighting colums across the borough are inspected and classified on a regular basis.

“Last year this particular column required a replacement lamp but there was no concerns expressed about the column's condition when the street lighting operative attended to carry out the work.

“In addition, prior to this incident there were no reports of any structural defects of the columns on this stretch of highway. The works supervisor also travels on this road on a daily basis and so would certainly notice any column that appeared to be in a dangerous condition."