For years, I have driven on the principle that safe driving begins with information – where my eyes are looking. The most important habit to form is keeping your eyes up, looking as far ahead as possible, and reading the road early. Forward vision gives you time, space, and calm decision making.
More recently, I have noticed that something has changed in my drive. I’d lost confidence. My eyes are constantly pulled downward toward the surface of the road. Instead of watching the horizon, I find myself frantically scanning the tarmac in front of the bonnet. I have had a few drivers tell me they are doing the same in training sessions. The reason is simple. Potholes.
Potholes are everywhere, and on every road type including motorways. The UK is estimated to have at least one million potholes on its roads each year (1), creating a daily challenge for drivers across the country.
The Current Problem: How Potholes Steal Your Eyes
Potholes were once rare interruptions. Today they appear in clusters, disguise their depth under puddles, or sit deep enough to cause instant wheel or suspension damage. This is forcing drivers to change how and where they look.
Instead of focusing ahead, many drivers are:
- scanning directly in front of the car
- searching for dips, cracks, and broken tarmac
- altering position at the last moment to avoid damage
- slowing abruptly in response to poor road surfaces
The scale of the problem is shown clearly in recent data showing UK pothole related incidents and damage. Here is what the real world data tells us about the scale of the problem.
The rise in breakdowns is sharp and sustained.
- RAC patrols attended 5,035 pothole related breakdowns between July and September 2025, which was a 25 percent increase compared to the same period in 2024. (2)
- Over the twelve months ending September 2025, potholes caused 25,758 breakdowns. That is an average of 71 breakdowns every day. (2)
- Between January and March 2025, there were 9,439 pothole related breakdowns, almost 20 percent higher than the previous year. (3)
- The AA handled 631,852 pothole related incidents in 2023. This was a five year peak and a 16 percent increase from the previous year. (4)
- Nearly 30,000 RAC breakdowns in 2023 were caused by potholes, which was a 33 percent increase from 2022. (4)
- In April 2023 alone, the AA attended more than 52,000 pothole related breakdowns.(5)
- The first quarter of 2021 recorded 14,827 RAC call outs for pothole damage, the highest quarterly number on record.(5)
The cost of pothole related damage
The financial cost is now significant and growing every year:
- The total cost of pothole damage repairs for UK motorists reached 474 million pounds in 2024.(6)
- The average repair bill rose to £300 in 2024 (6), up from £250 the previous year.
- In 2023, British drivers collectively spent an estimated 1.7 billion pounds on pothole repairs.(5)
When the road surface becomes this unpredictable, it is natural that drivers shift their vision closer to the vehicle. However, this has consequences.
Why This is a Safety Problem
Even though potholes are not routinely recorded as the primary cause of collisions, they still influence the wider safety landscape in important ways. The official figures for 2024 show 1,671 fatalities and 28,804 serious injuries on UK roads (7), and while these numbers reflect all types of crashes, potholes contribute indirectly by creating the conditions that make collisions more likely.
- Reduced forward planning: When your eyes drop toward the surface, you lose awareness of what is developing further ahead. Hazards that should have been seen early are picked up late.
- Increased cognitive load: Scanning constantly for potholes requires rapid decision making. Whether to avoid, straddle, or roll over each defect becomes a continuous mental task. This reduces the attention available for more important hazards.
- The psychological impact: Drivers experiencing constant jolts, unexpected impacts or the worry of damage may become tense or fatigued. Higher stress levels are known to reduce cognitive capacity and reaction time. When you combine this with the visual distraction of constantly searching for defects on the road surface, drivers are left with less mental bandwidth to identify and respond to genuine, developing hazards.
- Poorer lane discipline: Avoiding potholes can cause drivers to drift left toward the kerb or right toward oncoming traffic. Even slight deviations can introduce danger, especially on narrow roads.
- Inconsistent speed and progress: Sudden slowing or braking becomes common. This affects traffic flow and can cause rear end risks.
- Vision Tunnelling: When drivers focus too closely on the area directly in front of the vehicle, they experience visual tunnelling. This narrows their field of awareness, making it harder to spot side hazards or developing risks further ahead.
Potholes lead to a range of risky driving behaviours including sudden braking, abrupt swerving, reduced lane discipline and drivers diverting their attention away from the traffic environment in order to scan the road surface more closely. Any behaviour that reduces forward observation increases the chances of missing developing hazards such as pedestrians, cyclists, changing traffic signals, or sudden changes in traffic flow. This means potholes act as an invisible risk multiplier. They may not appear as a box ticked on a collision form but they help create the scenario in which mistakes, misjudgements and near misses are more likely.
When mental workload increases, situational awareness decreases, and that is when critical hazards can be missed.
Mechanical Safety
There is also the mechanical safety angle. The RAC reported more than 25,000 pothole related breakdowns in the twelve months to September 2025(2), including suspension damage, distorted wheels and tyre failures. A vehicle with weakened suspension, misaligned steering or a damaged tyre is automatically less stable during emergency manoeuvres, and this increases the likelihood that a minor incident could escalate into something more serious.
In addition, breakdowns themselves create roadside hazards. A driver forced to stop unexpectedly due to pothole damage, especially in a vulnerable location such as a narrow country lane or a fast moving road, becomes part of the broader collision risk picture.
A Potential Solution: Balanced Scanning
The long term fix for potholes depends on road maintenance investment. The UK government has allocated £1.6 billion toward repairs up to 2026(1). There is also rising pressure for councils to shift from temporary patching to permanent resurfacing.
While these improvements develop, drivers need a practical strategy for today.
A balanced scanning routine
- Keep the primary gaze far ahead. This restores forward planning and hazard anticipation.
- Use brief downward glances, not long stares. These quick checks pick up potholes without dominating attention.
- Adjust speed on poor surfaces. Slowing slightly gives more time to process what is ahead.
- Look for early visual clues. These include road patchwork, shadows, pooled water, and colour changes.
- Maintain safe road position first. Avoid potholes only when it is safe to do so.
This approach brings the focus back to controlled, deliberate driving.
Rebalancing Scanning
Drivers who rebalance their scanning gain several advantages:
- Improved forward planning: Hazards are noticed earlier and dealt with smoothly.
- Better vehicle control: Positioning becomes steadier and more predictable.
- Lower mental fatigue: Drivers feel calmer because their attention is not trapped at close range.
- Safer, smoother decision making: No more last second swerves or abrupt braking.
- Restoration of proper driving habits: Learner drivers in particular benefit from practising these techniques early.
Conclusion
Potholes have become more than a surface defect. With breakdowns increasing by thousands each year, repair bills rising sharply, and millions of potholes across the network, they are influencing the way drivers look at the road.
In short, potholes rarely appear as the named cause of a collision but they influence driver behaviour, vehicle condition, mental workload and roadside risk in ways that feed into the national casualty picture. That wider context helps explain why focusing too closely on the road surface, instead of on long range hazards, is a significant and growing safety concern.
The danger is not only in the potholes themselves, but in how they shift our vision away from forward planning. By understanding this and adopting a more balanced scanning approach, drivers can regain control, improve safety, and stay focused on the road ahead.
References
- RAC. RAC Pothole Index: statistics and data for UK roads. RAC Drive; 2026 Jan 15. Available from: https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/driving-advice/rac-pothole-index-statistics-data-and-projections/
- Pegasus Couriers. Pothole UK Index: UK statistics and worst areas. Pegasus Couriers; 2025 Nov 28. Available from: https://pegasuscouriers.co.uk/2025/11/pothole-uk-index-for-roads/
- LocalGov. Lepone I. Pothole breakdowns jump 20 percent. LocalGov; 2025 Apr 23. Available from: https://www.localgov.co.uk/Pothole-breakdowns-jump-20/62266
- Highways Industry. UK motorists face £474 million burden from pothole damage. HighwaysIndustry.com; 2024 Jan 16. Available from: https://www.highwaysindustry.com/uk-motorists-pothole-damage-cost/
- Vehicle Contracts. Pothole statistics and trends in the UK 2024. Vehicle Contracts; 2024 Jan 18. Available from: https://www.vehiclecontracts.co.uk/blog/pothole-statistics/
- Tyre News. Lockwood J. Potholes in focus: AA and RAC reveal staggering impact on drivers. TyreNews.co.uk; 2024 May 13. Available from: https://www.tyrenews.co.uk/news/potholes-in-focus-aa-and-rac-reveal-staggering-impact-on-drivers
- Brake. UK collision and casualty statistics. Brake; 2025. Available from: https://www.brake.org.uk/get-involved/take-action/mybrake/knowledge-centre/uk-road-safety
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