Pothole 'shredded six tyres' in one morning

A motorist has told how he pulled over after shredding his tyre in a pothole to find five others already suffering the same problem.

Jason Conyers was driving along Coventry Road in Solihull, West Midlands, on Sunday when suddenly he heard "the big bang, then the alarms go off on the dashboard, and that sound... of the tyre going flat instantly".

He swapped experiences with his fellow drivers already parked up, some of whom had been waiting hours for assistance.

Solihull Council said: "Our out-of-hours team was made aware of this particular pothole on the Coventry Road over the weekend. On inspection, a decision was made to repair this straight away."

The motorist said he was travelling from Sutton Coldfield when he suffered the blowout at about 10:30 GMT, and believed many more vehicles could have been affected after he got moving again.

"It was on my way to my son's football game... by the time we came back from the game, we turned right on to the main road and there was two other cars already parked up on the left."

The depth of the hole was demonstrated on a picture taken at the scene where a soft drink bottle was placed standing half-submerged in it, with water nearly up to the bottom of the label.

"When you're going over that, it just literally rips the tyre," Conyers added.

In a statement, the council said: "The last few weeks have been especially wet and rainy. All that prolonged rain speeds up wear and tear, meaning new potholes and defects are appearing much faster than we'd normally see.

"Be assured we are working incredibly hard to repair potholes as quickly as possible and have committed extra resources to completing these repairs."

West Midlands Mayor Richard Parker announced extra funding earlier this month to tackle potholes, which he said was a "top frustration" of people in the region.

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