AA president Edmund King sees car wrecked by potholes
The AA's president Edmund King has had his car wrecked by potholes a few days after he expressed concern about poorly-maintained roads.
Mr King was filling his Mercedes E-Class with petrol in St Albans, Hertfordshire, when the whole front of the vehicle collapsed.
The AA boss was taking his son to a football game when he had to call out one of his own recovery vehicles.
The car was towed to a Mercedes garage where repairs were carried out.
"I was lucky that the car was stationary and we were at a filling station," said Mr King.
"If I had been, say, on the outside lane of a motorway and this had happened it could have been very nasty indeed.
"We found that the front left spring of my car had broken and the mechanic said that this had been caused by wear and tear from potholes."
Mr King added: "While I was filling up we heard this hissing noise. When I went round to the front of the car I saw the extent of the damage."
Shortly before the incident, Mr King had been highlighting a report by the Asphalt Industry Association which said councils needed £10.5bn to bring local roads up to standard.
Mr King had also published an AA survey which showed that one third of AA members had suffered damage to their cars from potholes in the past two years.