So it's late tuesday and I'm on way to grab some dinner. When all of a sudden BANG! I hit what must have been the crater that disappeared the dynosaurs. Destroyed a brand new month old tire ($280), threw the alignment wat out, decentered the steering, snapped the welds on my ghl cat backs, plus a few fillings I think. I get the tire replaced and run to a dealer for an alignment and find this...
<img src="http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/6449/img024bp8.jpg">

If you can't tell, that upper a-arm is severly bent. I think I'm lucky the a-arm didn't break.

 

Here's your pic; you ought to reduce its size..

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Thanks for reposting the pic. Forgot about no html tags. I would have resized it but I was on my treo at the dealer when I posted.

Just as a note to everybody in the Orlando area, I recieved above average service at Holler Chevrolet. Bob Weber and John (?) were excellent service reps and the mechanic that worked on it left the alignment straight as an arrow. Not the cleanest shop but great work.

 

That sucks. I hit a man hole cover in my Cobra one night and it ripped the cat back off the X-pipe and shoved the exaust piping around the axle. $400 later the problem was fixed.

Do you know what town the pot hole was in? You should go and
(i)take a picture of it with a ruler in the hole to show how deep it is (ii) put soemthing in the picture so the scale of the hole can be appreciated. Once you do that call up the municple authorities in the town and tell them you want to submit a claim for a hazard on their roadway that "popped" your tire. I know it sounds nuts but my friend did it in a subsurb of Atlantic City and they actually cut him a check after he proved what the damage was...and that the hole he hit was 4" deep

 

You're actually the second person that suggest I make a claim with the city or county. I'll surely be out in the middle of the road with a camera and ruler and hand tomorrow!

So far my costs have been $260 for the A-arm replacement, $60 for the alignment, $88 for the pro-rated tire, and not sure how much money to asign to my pride $$$$

Total cost $408

btw, this was in the hunter creek area of orlando.

 

Brutal.

 

It would be nice & correct to make the city pay, good luck

 

I'm not a lawyer, but sometimes play one on message boards.

I think the law says that to get damages from a city, etc you will have to prove that the city had previously been notified of the existance of the pothole and after a reasonable amount of time they had not repaired it.

No evidence of prior notification and knowledge, you aren't going to get anything.

 

4 inches is nothing. The road in front of the place I'm working is so bad that my ABS kicks in when I'm driving (slowly) over it and lightly touch the brakes. More than 5 MPH on this 35 MPH speed limit road and I'd be replacing tires, wheels, and suspension components on a weekly basis.

Of course it doesn't help that our tires are skinny stiff rubber bands wrapped around huge wheels. A rational 15 inch wheel wrapped with a 70 series tire would just shrug off this stuff. When I drive my truck over this same section of road, it dances a bit, but I have no fear that I'm going to damage a tire, wheel, or suspension components.

 

Going around a curve with two right exits, I was on the on merge lane going 60+ when all of a suddin, a wheel rim was in the center of my lane and cars to the left of me, cars to the right of me. I braked, held my breath.
Result, rim went under car and shot out from the rear like a cannon, glancing off two cars that stopped, then took off as the freeway was packed.
My costs, my head struck the glass top, breaking it, front tire, rim shot, much suspension damage. Insurance cost, a mear $3200.00

 

Here in NJ here is how it works....The state generally has Title 59 immunity


The New Jersey Tort Claims Act establishes the principle that public entities may only be liable for their tortuous acts within the limitations of the act itself. The act defines the parameters within which the recovery for tortuous injuries may be had against public entities and their employees. Generally, a public entity is immune unless there is a specific provision in the act providing for the imposition of liability.

Pursuant to N.J.S.A. 59:4-2

“A public entity is liable for injury caused by a condition of its property if the plaintiff establishes that the property was in dangerous condition at the time of the injury, that the injury was proximately caused by the dangerous condition, that the dangerous condition created a reasonably foreseeable risk of the kind of injury which was incurred, and that either:

a.) A negligent or wrongful act or omission of an employee of the public entity within the scope of his employment created the dangerous condition; or

b.) A public entity had actual or constructive notice of the dangerous condition under section 59:4-3 a sufficient time prior to the injury to have taken measures to protect against the dangerous condition.

Nothing in this section shall be construed to impose liability upon a public entity for a dangerous condition of its public property if the action the entity took to protect against the condition or the failure to take such action was not palpably unreasonable.”

 

I thought California was the worst in the nation to have the worst roads.

 

Here's how you deal with such bad thing. First off take a picture of the pothole. If you can put something in the hole that you can show just how deep and large the hole is, do it. Then file a police report. Not on the phone but go to the local cop shop in that area and file one at the desk.
Keep your repair cost so you can show the city what that pothole cost you. If the city refuses to pay the repain cost, which they do about 50 percent of the time. Then take them to Small Claim Court. You have paid for safe roads and the local government is held to see that the roadways are safe.
Many people have this idea in their heads that potholes are just part of driving. If you hit one and do damage to your car that's just the way it goes. That line of thinking is not correct.

 

Exactamundo. I hit a gargantuan pothole in my C5 (along with about 20 others who filed a claim). It was so big I almost ran off the road. All claims were rejected because we couldn't prove negligence on the part of the County by naming a SPECIFIC county employee responsible for the negligence. I kid you not. North Carolina's roads are some of the worst in the nation.

My advice: don't waste your time and energy and just get it fixed like I did. I had to get the car realigned and purchase two new tires and two new rims. But at least I made the two bent rims into a cool new table..............

 

Seattle has everyone beat. Our roads sux

 

Was your rim ok? I would check it too.

 

Another disadvantage of lower profile tires is that they are more suceptible to wheel damage compared to the regular tires that have more rubber, cost more $$$, more cushion which = a more comfortable ride which I know is the downside for performance. Low profile tires less rubber for your $$$$

 

A judge made that determination??? I would think it would be more likely that a court would find that (i) the condition was not "dangerous" or (ii) the town's actions were not "palpably unreasonable".

The statue defining "dangerous condition" defines it as a “condition of property that creates a substantial risk of injury when such property is used with due care in a manner in which it is reasonably foreseeable that it will be used.” N.J.S.A. 59:4-1.

As for the unreasonableness of the township's action, a court has to consider what the condition is and the action/inaction of the town. The issue of actual or constructive notice is very important in making this determination.

 

This didn't even make it to court. This was told to me by the Union County, NC DOT office where I filed a claim for reimbursement. They summarily dismissed/denied every claim filed for reimbursement for any and all damage related to this pothole, my claim and about 20 others. Curiously the pothole was repaired the next day.

Now that I think about it I should have taken this to Small Claims Court. Too late for that now.

 

My daughter was going to work at 6 am, after the July 4th weekend. She hit a hole in the road, that had been dug out by a road crew prior to the weekend. It wasn't marked with anything. She destroyed three custom wheels, and three tires. The county said sorry about that. I hope you have better luck getting them to pay, than we did.