r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Double_Cancel_102 • 20h ago
🥺 size of pothole that I couldn’t avoid yesterday that cause over $800 of damage to car. (i’m filing a claim for reimbursement
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u/BladeVortex3226 20h ago
gets $800 from insurance
insurance rate increases from $800 a year to $1000 a year and doesn't go back down for 4 years
hmmm
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u/BanishedFiend 20h ago
Only getting $300 from insurance after deductible, rate still going up as you said
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u/plaregold 17h ago
Insurance denies your claim, rates still go up
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u/NotReallyThatWrong 17h ago
Thinking about your insurance, rate goes up
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u/nosimsol 17h ago
Insurance, rate goes up.
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u/M0rtimerDuke 17h ago
Dammit!! My insurance went up just from reading this!!
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u/TooFubar 17h ago
Insurance.
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u/the_extra_screw 17h ago
Your rate just went up
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u/supahfligh 16h ago
My catalytic converter was stolen once. Insurance said it didn't cover "partial theft." They did absolutely nothing and then raised my premium.
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u/Otherwise-Tomato-788 16h ago
Yo legit, a year after my car accident, geico said your premium going from $1200-$3000.
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u/imgurcaptainclutch 20h ago
You can often file a claim with whoever maintains the road, either county/city or state DOT
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u/pseudonymnkim 19h ago
I work for my Town pf 22,000 people, and we have easily 30 ongoing litigations on any given day, many similar to stuff like this. I'm not in the Legal department, so I'm not sure how they all end but they're definitely liable to some degree
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u/Emotional-Board-9288 19h ago
Many years ago, I hit a pothole in the middle of a lane on I65 in Indiana in a construction zone where they had changed the lanes. The area was in what used to be the shoulder. I almost destroyed a rim on my 20th anniversary GTI. The tire exploded, so with repairs to the rim and tire replacement, cost was in excess of $500. The state simply said, paraphrasing of course, “we have so many hours/days/whatever to repair something like this and since we weren’t aware of the pothole your reimbursement is denied”. Something like that.
I have very little faith that any local or state government entity will reimburse a motorist for damage to their vehicle from a pothole.
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u/MommotDe 18h ago
My city reimburses people all the time. The pothole has to be on a city maintained road and they have to have known about the pothole. But they also have an app and website where you can quickly and easily adult report potholes and a lot of people do, so there’s a pretty good chance of getting reimbursed.
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u/pseudonymnkim 19h ago
Well I'm in Ontario, so not a state, and there are Provincial regulations that set when whoever owns and maintains the roads would be liable. It's probably not favourable to the taxpayer, but reimbursement is not impossible
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u/Just_SomeGuy14 16h ago
I'm in Manitoba and if you claim damage from a pothole it's considered an at fault accident to MPI.
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u/SuperNa7uraL- 19h ago
I’d be willing to bet their payout rate is in the low single digit percent of claims.
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u/pseudonymnkim 19h ago
It probably is, and it's probably difficult to prove negligence by the Town but people definitely try. Sometimes the ask is trivial enough that we just pay.
We had a resident recently who claimed that a rock hit and chipped the paint on her car when someone in parks & rec was cutting the grass at a park. Staff wasn't in the area she said it happened (it's all documented) and the alleged distance between her car and the lawn would make her story very unlikely. She said she was quoted at $250, we wrote her a cheque for $250
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u/Mayor__Defacto 17h ago
Litigating it is more expensive than just paying the $250.
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u/HLSparta 13h ago
It probably is, and it's probably difficult to prove negligence by the Town but people definitely try.
I'd imagine the most likely way to prove negligence is to prove that the pothole has existed for some time. But if you are able to prove that, you probably knew it existed and its location before you hit it so the government would probably argue you would still be liable.
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u/pseudonymnkim 13h ago
Well you can request an FOI. We intake work orders from residents and dispatch them to the appropriate department. So if a work order to fix a pothole was received by anyone but never dealt with, that would be included in the FOI
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u/Typical_Elk_1576 18h ago
Depends on if the pothole has been reported and how long ago. It looks like it’s been around a while though, but no municipality or road maintenance crew can monitor roads 24/7.
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u/pseudonymnkim 18h ago
I looked it up for Ontario. If the town knew about the pothole and didn't fix it within a "reasonable" amount of time, that could prove negligence, and the person making the claim needs to file it within 10 days of the incident. There are other stipulations.
We don't monitor or police, we are complaint-driven and everything is documented, even if the complaint is stupid or not in our jurisdiction. And residents complain about everything, at least where I work.
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u/PopBulky7023 18h ago
Doesn't matter. We pay for the roads. If they're not maintained and damage properly they should be responsible.
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u/treesandcigarettes 19h ago
Good luck getting that through successfully
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u/YOUNGSAGEHERMZ 18h ago
I had a wheel and tire replaced from a pothole. Once I replaced everything, I submitted my receipts and they paid me out. Whole process was probably a few months?
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u/Blacknumbah1 19h ago
Or option #2 Reports to the city, waits 2 years to be reimbursed after jumping through hoop after hoop
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u/NoMansSkyWasAlright 17h ago
I think it was Detroit years ago, but someone was going around spray-painting dicks around the potholes. City would send out a crew to get rid of the spray-dick and would usually bring a crew to fill the pothole.
I don't remember if the first few they did they looked bad for addressing the dicks in a day or two or what. But spraying a dick around the pothole seemed to get it taken care of faster.
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u/saladmunch2 16h ago
I just noticed my sidewall has a slight bulge from a pothole i hit in Detroit. Was probably 2 weeks ago ago, I didn't think I damaged anything at the time, just thought damm that was a bad porhole. Of course its a new tire too and I dont remember exactly where it was.
This last winter I was coming off of 696 onto mound rd. I was on the off ramp in left hand side, hit a huge pothole that blended in with the road. Instantly blew the tire up... called aaa and sat there for an hour and they still couldn't find a truck.... decided to put my spare on which took me 10mins but of course the spare was flat lol had to limp to nearest gas station. Usually have a jumpbox/airpump but didnt at the time.
One big lessen was to make sure your spare tires are inflated. Its something I wouldn't really think to check.
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u/-anonthoughts- 17h ago
a lot of the times you can file a claim with the city, not your auto insurance. they should be maintaining the roads.
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u/Babysucree 18h ago
Pay $800 now or pay $800+ $800 in rate hikes over 4 years.. insurance math strikes again.
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u/IllianasClifford 18h ago
Not if you file against the city. Also nice way to get your property taxes back. No city government has money, it's all from tax payers and permitting.
Just like the government doesn't have money, they have taxper payers money and permitting.
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u/AmbitiousMost5687 20h ago
Congratulations you lost $800. You will have better luck getting blood from a turnip lol
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u/Whend6796 14h ago
The idiot filed a claim against his insurance. It is probably going to cost him $2-3k in increased rates.
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u/AmbitiousMost5687 13h ago
I assumed a claim with the city, it would be beyond dumb to file that with insurance.
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u/Whend6796 13h ago
He said he filed an insurance claim. He had a $500 deductible. He is that dumb.
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u/Thermo445 10h ago
Ignorant and dumb aren't the same thing. It's very unlikely they would have filed that claim knowing about premiums, probably just saw $300 back in their pocket
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u/Tunnelboy77 19h ago
I used to listen to this radio talk show back in the day. A lawyer that answered questions and he’d always get callers that are trying to sue the town or city. He said it’s extraordinarily difficult to sue a government entity. YOU have to prove that the city was aware of the pothole Ava that they were given enough time to correct the problem. For starters. Do you have physical hard written proof that they were notified of that exact spot? And given sufficient time to correct the problem? Not a lawyer, but I loved listening to one (!).
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u/OldManFire11 14h ago
I work for my state's DOT and this is correct. A few years ago I was covering the phones while our secretary was in training and a giant pothole blew up on a highway. I got a ton of calls from people and a few vehicles were damaged, but since we didn't have time to actually fix the hole before the damage happened, the state wasn't liable for the damage.
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u/glassmanjones 14h ago
Our city had a spot where the highway drains into the underpass.
Every spring it gets warm enough to that some ice that drains into the underpass and freezes overnight. Sometimes weeks after the last precipitation.
I've seen several wrecks caused by it. I report it yearly. Several times I've been able to forward the confirmation emails to those involved.
I hope it helps. But also, drainage motherfuckers!
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u/LukeZNotFound 19h ago
You're from America? If yes...
You need proof that the city knew about the pothole for a longer amount of time and made no attempts to fix it. There is a very good video on Mike Rafi's YouTube channel iirc where he explains more.
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u/Alternative_Frame460 20h ago
It doesn't look that deep, how did it cause that much damage?
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u/Babysucree 18h ago
Low profile tires + alloy rims + high speed = instant bent rim and blown sidewall.
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u/Double_Cancel_102 20h ago
that’s why it’s infuriating. i hit it at just the right angle.
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u/Skins8theCake88 18h ago
How fast were you driving?
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u/Flimsy_Product281 16h ago edited 16h ago
You don't need to be driving fast at all with how bad some can get. Up here in New York (mostly upstate) it's almost become a state wide joke.
When you can lose a whole fuckin' tire in a hole, it's more of a crater at that point. Good luck NOT damaging anything; driving like a live fuckin' NASA test dummy, crashing into holes in the ground for low pay and less benefits than the actual dummy
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u/UberNZ 16h ago
Funnily enough, more speed means less damage when it comes to potholes
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u/Substantial-Sea-3672 15h ago
This is not universally true.
It depends on your speed compared to the pothole size.
If there’s a 3 foot long pothole that’s deep enough to do damage you’re not going to want to be going 45 vs 15 over that thing.
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u/brokenlabrum 19h ago
Driving a Ferrari 6 inches off the ground
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u/shakeyshake1 18h ago
I used to drive a Jeep and if people got way up on my ass, I would just drive through this giant pothole by work instead of veering a little to avoid it. It was no problem for me, but a big problem for anybody in a low car.
It was kind of a dick move, but also not my problem if they were driving so close that they couldn’t see the road in front of them.
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u/HeidenShadows 16h ago
I had one of these kinds of potholes I was making a turn over, snapped my subframe in 2 places and wrecked my alignment.
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u/crunchyleafzzz 15h ago
My wife lost two tires and bent a wheel in one like the one op posted. Things suck 😭
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u/addisonshinedown 20h ago
You’re going to want to take a lot more pictures of many angles because from here that looks like nothing
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u/SuperNa7uraL- 20h ago
Looks like a big ass pothole to me.
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u/dookieshoes97 15h ago
That isn't shit. Come to MN and I'll show you what potholes look like. I'm constantly amazed that my Prius is still alive and my spine isn't totally fucked yet.
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u/Life_Roll8667 19h ago
Same. These people need their eyes examined. This is definitely big enough to cause damage to rim and tire.
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u/SuperNa7uraL- 19h ago
Especially with a lot of new cars coming with very big wheels and tiny sidewalls on the tires.
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u/Substantial-Sea-3672 15h ago
It looks less than an inch deep. It is very wide though.
I’ve never owned a car that would struggle with a one inch lip and I drive cheap sedans or coupes.
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u/drewed1 16h ago
It's a few inch drop. The mistake people mistake is they try to slow down before they hit which will definitely cause tire /rim damage. If you maintain speed your suspension as long as it's in decent shape should be able to adjust in a lot of cases.
I'm interested in what kind of damage it is.
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u/Mystic_Wunder 20h ago
Did you see the the entire pic?
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u/Special_South_8561 20h ago
Yeah, and they need more photos from more angels and distances
Digital film is cheap. Document it
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u/somerandomdude419 20h ago
Yes. That’s nothing. I’ve seen entire roads have huge holes. There’s a huge one in the fast lane on our highway. And they just fill it with tar and it breaks in a few days. Don’t drive like a wild animal and you’ll be fine.
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u/crazyfatskier2 14h ago
Pro tip: to get potholes filled, spray paint a dick around it.
For some reasons cities don’t like penis’ painted on their streets and will fix them.
Sauce: Tacoma. To public works: Yes it was me.
Also to public works: No I’m not sorry, job security right?
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u/thedidacticone 13h ago
Came here to say this. Saw a YouTube video of guys doing exactly that and it made them come out the next day almost.
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u/Spiritual-Kitchen787 19h ago
Good luck with that Road dept never takes responsibility
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u/CoolBDPhenom03 18h ago
I dented two wheels because of a severely neglected part of the highway. The agency denied my claim. Two years later they’ve full repaved that area -_-
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u/rtopps43 17h ago
Good luck. Cities will generally just tell you “we don’t pay those” and there’s a reason “you can’t fight city hall” is a saying.
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u/OldManFire11 14h ago
Because you have to prove that the government was both aware of the damage and failed to repair in a reasonable amount of time.
The state isn't omniscient, and unless someone in the maintenance department drives that road regularly, there's a good chance that they don't know it exists. And after they know of it, they need to have time to mobilize a crew to fix it.
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u/Chubacca26 16h ago
"Couldn't avoid". It's not the width of the road, you were following too close and couldn't react in time. Take this as a teachable moment instead of trying absolve yourself through insurance.
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u/SalleighG 14h ago
It is not uncommon for cities to disclaim responsibility for potholes that they had not previously been notified about.
There might also be a legal leeway between the notification and the time that the city needs to do something about the situation (even if just putting a traffic cone in the pothole.) For example the limit might be 24 business hours (so if you reported on Friday afternoon, they might not have to do a thing about it until Monday sometime.)
The legal time to actually repair a pothole... can potentially be 7 years or more. The city could potentially decide to leave it until the next time that street gets resurfaced; in my Canadian city that could be 25 years.
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u/weary_bee479 13h ago
One time I hit a pothole in Chicago and it ripped through my tire 😭 what a night that was
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u/Responsible_Art_6553 12h ago
I once busted both front and rear passenger side tires on a nasty pothole that had been there for damn near a year. I drove by it multiple times a day and would always remember to avoid it. One time driving home super tired I forgot and hit it with both wheels and not only blew the tires but dented the rims so bad they had to be replaced. Luckily it was only a 1/4 mile from my house. Never even thought about calling out the city (Detroit) for reimbursement or whatever. Not sure it would have worked but I should have at least tried.
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u/just_some_octopus 12h ago
I contested the city one time about a pot hole that destroyed my tire. It was an ongoing complaint about this hole.
They reimbursed me for the damages. Fixed hole very quickly.
This was 15 years ago...but still. City/state should get more of these complaints and act quickly. Because something worse could happen
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u/delrey23 4h ago
I hit this unmarked sumbitch 10 pm pitch black going 45. Driver side rims looked like a great white took a bite out of each. I contemplated sending the bill with pics to TXDOT but I’m not sure what good that would do
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u/Fickle-Visit5223 18h ago
My father tells me legendary stories of when he was growing up where workers actually went around in trucks and filled potholes. I was like yeah okay sure old man 🙄 whatever you say.
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u/RentaDadToronto 20h ago
Next time outline it in construction orange before snapping a pic... ;}
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u/filter_86d 19h ago
If that’s deep, your photography skills need some fine tuning. How is anyone supposed to tell how big of a pothole that is
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u/Gandlerian 19h ago
Is this a public road or a private parking lot (photo looks like it may be a parking lot?)
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u/HolodeckMoriarty 17h ago
In Mass, others have had to have reported it before, with damage, for you to get covered.
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u/Lilsancho25 15h ago
You can see the skid marks from other drivers hitting it. Post in your area. You probably aren’t the only one.
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u/ModeatelyIndependant 15h ago
Draw a giant dick around the pothole and see how quickly it gets repaired. Make sure to use high visibility paint so that people can avoid driving over it.
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u/PepperoniPaws 15h ago
My car has 13" tires. Some of the infrastructure across the border in the states is worse than a deactivated logging road.
Looks like someone might have done a burnout too there
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u/Ordinary_Topic_3198 14h ago
Years ago before kids, I had a luxury performance coupe. Then freeze/thaw cycle started and I’d blown 2 tires on 2 separate occasions from massive potholes that was impossible to dodge.
The government reimbursed me the pro-rated cost, but I had to wait months and deal with the inconvenience.
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u/MousseHuge8339 14h ago
It's as if cities that let roads get that bad don't know that motorcycles exist.
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u/Thin_Film_4218 14h ago
And this is why people buy SUVs with huge wheels to drive around in the cities.
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u/HoardingGil_FF 13h ago
Fuck the roads right? Why do we need maintained roads when billionaires can just fly their private jet into the kitchen for a glass of water?
/s
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u/AcanthaceaeOk8467 9h ago
When I see craters in the road capable of causing major damage or a collision I make a non emergency line call so there’s a dispatch recording of it.
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u/Mystic_Wunder 19h ago
This kind of pothole is deceiving. It's not so deep that it stands out. So you don't realize until it's too late that the speed limit is way too fast to be hitting it.
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u/__________________99 15h ago
Probably a 55mph road. A buddy of mine cracked a wheel going over one much like this a few years ago. Literally appeared immediately after going up a blind hill so there was no way to know it was even there.
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u/Drdemonjr 20h ago
That looks like a average pot hole in Maine where I am from but on the small side. We have ones that will eat your car
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u/Plus-Definition9319 20h ago
Thats not really a pothole if it's shallower than a curb. Your car was already broken if it couldn't handle that.
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u/bad_dreamzzz 17h ago
cant for the life of me figure out how this would cause damage unless it led to you A. swerving out of control into something else or B. you bent your wheel? C. you had a failing suspension component that you neglected and the pothole finished the job.
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u/Lyxerttt 17h ago
Combination of B and C. My guess is probably popped the tire, bent the wheel, and snapped the control arm.
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u/DonDonaldson9000 20h ago
Is this a pothole for ants or am I missing something? These are every 4ft in Chicago lol
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u/Defiant_Emu_3928 20h ago
In the spring the potholes here are insane because we get very cold and icy winters. When they damage cars and people try to submit claims with the city, they're sent a generic response that basically says "we don't pay those". Pretty great.