A major pothole on Frant Road, just south of Tangier Lane, resulted in nine cars being left ‘stranded’ on the roadside on the evening of February 14.
Affected driver Jutta Wrobel explained that following her car ‘smashing down the hole’ around 5.45pm, she noticed there was a problem and pulled up further down the road with her hazard lights on. Within 20 minutes, she found eight further cars lined up on the roadside with their hazard lights on.
Several drivers tried calling the emergency number given by East Sussex Highways to report the dangerous hazard on the road but were all continuously met with an answering message. Sussex Police reportedly arrived at the scene around 8.30pm and cordoned off the area.
Jutta told the Times that despite calling multiple times, including when she was back home, she couldn’t get through to the East Sussex Highways 24-hour emergency hotline until 8.30am the following morning, which she described as ‘shocking’ and ‘dangerous.’
She added: “The East Sussex Highways emergency number is meant to be manned for this type of hazard, but we were sent straight to an answer message for several hours. All we could do was watch helplessly as more and more people plunged down the hole.
“If there’s a hole or hazard in the road, who do you call? It took nearly three hours before anyone came out and cordoned off the pothole. They are very lucky there wasn’t a major traffic incident.”
An East Sussex Highways spokesperson said: “We apologise for the difficulties some motorists experienced when calling our emergency number on Wednesday evening (February 14) to report a pothole on Frant Road.
“The emergency number is manned 24 hours a day, seven days a week. On occasion the line may be busy if our Duty Officers are taking other calls, in which case the caller will be asked to leave a message.
“We ask people to call us about emergency situations rather than accepting reports via our website so our Duty Officers can ensure they have the correct information and can take any necessary action as quickly as possible.
“Interim repairs to the pothole were carried out on Wednesday evening and a permanent repair is scheduled to be completed within 28 days.”
