A young Markethill woman has warned someone will be seriously injured on the pothole-plagued Newtownhamilton Road unless urgent action is taken.
She and her partner had been travelling along the road – with their young son in the back seat – when they hit two potholes in quick succession.
“The state of this road is horrendous. We were lucky not to have a serious accident,” she said, as she recalled their experiences of Friday night.
The woman, who asked not to be named, said: “I take my son to a youth job up in Silverbridge, so we were coming back from that. We were just coming through Newtown back to Markethill – we were about 10 minutes from Markethill. The roads are full of potholes, but especially that Newtown Road back home.
“It was after 7 o’clock, it was pitch black and there’s cars coming on the other side, so you can’t swerve to avoid it.
“We went through the first one and I actually thought we were going to go into the ditch. There was a severe bang, it was that loud. And then there must have been another one straight after it and then the tyre came away from the rim and bent in several places.
“We had to pull over and the rim was all cracked. Thankfully we had a spare tyre in the back, but we were lucky not to have an accident.”
Admitting it had been a scary experience, the woman added: “Thankfully my partner was driving, I wasn’t driving, otherwise I don’t know what I would have been like.
“I had my five-year-old son, who also has autism, in the back. Thankfully he was OK but things like that can really set him off, but thankfully he was fine.”
Forced to change the tyre in the pouring rain, in the latest of a series of weather warnings, the incident has prompted fresh calls for action.
“How can the DfI leave this road in this condition and expect people to travel on it?,” asked the irate mum. “Someone is going to be seriously hurt if this road is not repaired.
“I would say the whole road needs resurfaced with immediate effect. I don’t know how they can expect people to drive up and down that road every day. Someone is going to have a serious accident and be seriously hurt.”
