It was a sunny day in July when Howard Bamsey drove over a pothole which was "quite unlike any other".
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"It was a day when the sun was quite bright, and your eyes don't accommodate to the shadows as easily as on a day when there's little sun," he said.
"I changed lanes and I couldn't see the pothole. And the next thing I knew I'd hit it, and it was quite unlike any other previous pothole I've ever ran across, so to speak, and, really quite severe."
Mr Bamsey said it was a challenge for him to keep the car on course and that, in other circumstances, it could have caused a more serious accident.
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"Worst case if you hit a big pothole, so that your tyre blows, you could ... go in any direction," he said.
"If there are a lot of other cars around, or any other cars around, it could lead to a collision."
When he went back to take photos of the hole to report it, he said it had already been filled in.
Mr Bamsey isn't the only one letting the ACT government know how they feel about the potholes that seem to have increased in number across the city.
There have been more than double the amount of potholes fixed in Canberra in the past year than in the 2019-20 financial year.
In the 2020-21 financial year, there were 3297 pothole-related enquiries to online reporting tool Fix My Street, making it one of the most reported issues through the forum during the 12 months.
In total, the ACT government repaired 6375 potholes in 2020-21, compared to 2719 the previous financial year.
Mr Bamsey said while it seemed the holes were filled up quickly, they were reappearing within weeks.
"I can't claim to know how it works. But there are these signals that is not working well. First is that the potholes do accumulate, and they are attended to. And secondly, when they are dealt with, it's a very cursory feeling," he said.
"Putting a bit of bitumen on and waiting for it to appear again, after a bit of rain, or when there's a series of heavy trucks go over it. So it seems to me there's something wrong."
An ACT government spokesperson said the potholes were caused by too much rain.
"Over the last year the [La Nina] weather system has created significant rainfall across the ACT. This has resulted in damage to the ACT's roads including potholes," the spokesperson said.
"June was the fourth wettest on record in Canberra for that month, and was followed in July by 19 days of rainfall, which is well above average."
Mr Bamsey said the accident had made him more cautious while driving.
"It's particularly concerning because Canberra used to have the best roads of any capital in Australia," he said.
"[Now] I don't know of any worse than Canberra. I think all the other capital cities I've driven in recently have much better and much safer roads."
He said when he went to get the his tyre fixed, which cost $500, the repair specialist said they had been flooded with customers.
"The guy who I was talking to they said they're inundated with the moment by people with similar problems because of potholes," he said.
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