Pothole on SH1 punctures tyres on 'at least 30' vehicles

A motorist who suffered two punctured tyres after hitting a pothole on State Highway 1 says at least 30 cars suffered a similar fate.

The pothole developed on a bridge, just before a passing lane between Baldrock and Mountain Rds, south of the Brynderwyn Hills yesterday.

It was about 80cm wide, and fairly deep.

Greg Lockley was "making good time" on his way home to Hamilton after a holiday in the Bay of Islands when he hit the pothole about noon.

The culprit - a pothole patched up and virtually hidden, but not before causing multiple punctures.

"It was unseen due to water build-up on the bridge."

It blew out the front and rear tyres on the passenger side of his Toyota Aurion, and bent the rim on the rear wheel.

He said "at least 30" vehicles were affected.

"A lot of them were lucky and only had one blow-out."

He waited about three hours for a tow truck, which was taking him to Kaiwaka where he had arranged a second spare tyre.

However he was unsure whether it would be able to be fitted because of the bent rim.

"It's a shocker."

Sisters Darling and Alex Joyce were on their way home to Auckland when two of their tyres were punctured by the pothole. Photo/John Stone

Sisters Darling and Alex Joyce were travelling back to Auckland from Whangarei when they hit the hole about 2pm.

Darling said they saw the flashing lights and thought it was a warning about something further ahead.

"It was foggy and bucketing down and we saw it and it was too late."

Darling, who was forced to miss work, said as soon as it happened they heard the rim on their front tyre hitting the road.

"And then we got out of the car and we heard the hissing of the other one."

The sisters had their children, a 4-year-old and 9-month-old in the car and waited for Darling's partner to come from Auckland to help them.

She said they saw another motorist's airbag deploy.

The sisters and Mr Lockley thought NZTA should pay for their tyres.

NZTA Northland highway manager Brett Gliddon said potholes are not unusual at this time of year when there's higher rainfall.

He said they have extra crews on board when there's bad weather and they responded to and repaired the pothole as soon as they were alerted.

"Crews wil be back at the location to check the situation and will monitor it until a permanent repair made during spring, when weather conditions are better suited to pavement repairs."

He said NZTA patrols the network daily and encourages people to report potholes or damage to them immediately.

"The NZ Transport Agency will consider the individual circumstances for each case before making a decision about compensation."