A Perth street has been dubbed the “road that eats cars” by motorists, after speed bumps began tearing the bottom out of their vehicles.
A number of vehicles have been damaged after the road surface in Grange Terrace in Perth began to disintegrate following the harsh winter of 2011. In the last week alone, three cars have fallen victim to the road surface.
The speed bumps, which are made of several sections, are lifted by the weight of cars going over them, resulting in them catching on the underside of vehicles.
One of the drivers to fall foul of the speed bumps is Gemma Paterson, whose Toyota sports car was badly damaged on Friday evening.
Gemma, 25, who lives in Tulloch, said she was “devastated” that her “pride and joy” had fallen victim to the road.
She said: “I know those speed bumps are quite hard and because I have a wee MR2 I always crawl over speed bumps. As I went over it it was like a see-saw. The back end came up and it ripped the underneath of my car off.
“I can’t use my car now because it’s not protected. It’s not got that cover under it, and if I drive over a stone it could damage my car even more.
“I’m angry, especially as the residents say they have been complaining about it since 2011. You’d expect something would have been done about it before now.”
She said she intends to pursue the council for the cost of repairs but did not yet know how much it would cost to get her car up and running again.
Residents have complained to the council, with workers patching the gaps with concrete.
One resident, Tricia Fox, said: “I phoned it in as an emergency repair on Friday at 5.30pm. I think it was repaired by Sunday but definitely not on Friday.
“I’ve made two reports to Perth and Kinross Council stating that they are dangerous and need fixed properly. Other neighbours have made similar reports.
“Today there is a full bottom of a car at the side of the road that wasn’t there yesterday, so I can only assume another poor road tax-paying motorist has fallen foul of the speed bumps from hell.”
A council spokeswoman said: “We are aware of issues with the plastic bolted speed humps in Perth’s Grange Terrace. We were contacted over the weekend about them and our out of hours team responded to make the location safe.
“We are in the process of identifying funding to put in replacement asphalt speed humps, similar to many other traffic calmed locations. We will continue to inspect and maintain the existing speed humps until they are replaced.”