A Northland motorist is frustrated by Waka Kotahi's response after he says a badly potholed stretch of motorway damaged his car so badly it is undrivable.
In May, Devlin Maras' partner, Danielle Gaudin drove into a cluster of potholes on SH10 near Kerikeri.
Maras told AM on Tuesday the potholes were so bad it set off the driver's side airbag and did extensive damage to their car – leaving it undriveable.
"It was so bad... There was lots of shuddering and bumps and it actually deployed the driver's side airbag. She had our three-month-old baby [in the car] and it was quite traumatising for both my partner and our child Alfie," he said.
Maras said afterwards they contacted roading contractor Fulton Hogan and Waka Kotahi for compensation but ended up being passed back and forth between the agencies.
"We decided to go through the process of getting in touch with Waka Kotahi and it was sort of a run around the merry-go-around ever since.
"There was a brief period where they were flicking us off to Fulton and Hogan and then Fulton and Hogan was flicking us back to Waka Kotahi."
Maras said he had extensive reports detailing the damage to the car but that didn't seem to help.
"One of the control arms on the car was completely destroyed [and it] had been done less than half a month before going through the potholes. It buckled two of our rims and deployed the airbag."
Waka Kotahi said it's important for people to have insurance and while they do "take reasonable care to prevent foreseeable incidents on the state highway network, it's not practical or possible to immediately identify and repair every defeat."
"It's not practical or feasible to repair every defeat on the 11,000km state highway network. We prioritise our maintained activities to the areas of greatest need. Complaints and claims are assessed on a case-by-case basis. We recommend drivers should have insurance."
Maras said unfortunately he didn't have insurance but had gotten a warrant less than a month before hitting the potholes.
"There is a degree of compliance that comes with having a warrant of fitness and registration for our vehicles to make sure our cars are road worthy, unfortunately, some of the roads aren't roadworthy for our vehicles."
Watch the full interview above.
