Unmarked Pothole bends my rim, wrecks tire
 

Well so im driving up cultus lake road doing the speed limit and everything in my dsm and I NAILED a deep horrible pot hole. I got home checked the rim and it was bent pretty good and the tire is messed up as well. Buldge in the tire and its leaking air. Just wondering who, if anybodywould be responsible for this and if anyone has advice.

The pot hole was unmarked, there was no gravel or anything inside it. No warning signs at all to let you know of the road hazzard.

I dont have collision on the car.... and wouldn't go through ICBC anyways cuz a new rim and tire is less then $300 deductable anyways. If i have to i will take this to small claims.

Just wondering if anyone has any good info or tips for me for getting someone to pay for the damages to the car.

Heres some pics of the damages and the pothole
http://www3.telus.net/public/brettha...e/bentrim1.JPG
http://www3.telus.net/public/brettha...e/bentrim2.JPG

http://www3.telus.net/public/brettha...e/pothole1.JPG
http://www3.telus.net/public/brettha...e/pothole2.JPG

I think this is nuts, I've spent so many days this week dodging pot holes on the oak street bridge till they patched them finally yesterday., I think a bunch of people should get together and sue the city like the people in Montreal did.

I phoned the company responsible for the matience on the road and they pretty much told me to screw off.

I guess Ill have to shell out for the damages myself and then take this one to small claims court.

lol, take it up the ass why don't you.

contact the city, not a private company. bitch enough and they will pay for it to get fixed.

thing is the city of chilliwack says that its not under there jurastiction

They said its either cultus lake parks, or Fraser valley highways.

I had the same thing happen to me. This is what ICBC emailed me when I was talking to them about possibly going through them
In my case, I think that the Township of Langley was negligent to I'm going after them to pay for damages.

just curious but how fast were you going when you hit it?

60 km/h. I was following behind a pickup truck. At a safe distance of course. Still did not have time to avoid the pot holes.

the thing is the road cruise were driving up and down this road to clear the mudslide we had close the road yesterday. It was probably the heavy trucks and machinery they sent up the road to fix it farther up that cause the potholes to get so fast in just a day. They would have seen the pot holes right away cuz they drove past it many many times in the last 2 days. And it wasnt just one pothole, it was like 4 or 5 of them in a row.

The one i hit had started forming over a week ago.

Funny it is as i drove home tonight they were fixing them as we speek. I guess my phone call to the road matience companie did something at least. I wonder how many other cars dented there rim on those pot holes in the last 2 days.

heres a nother pic of a pothole just up the road from the one i wailed on

http://www3.telus.net/public/brettha...e/pothole4.JPG

Im going to go after the road matience company... or the fraser valley highways. Not sure which one i would serve a notice to yet. Most likely this will go through small claims or the company could choose to settle out of course I guess Would save them money and time in the long run for a rim and tire that is worth $200-300 at the most

hey, if cities can warn and fine people for not cleanup snow , u can do the same for not filling pot holes,

in toronto u can send bill to city and they have to pay for it, just make sure u get a shop write that ur wheel prob. got bent going over a pot hole.

Um. Do you think it's possible to patch potholes instantly as they popup?


You're in an area that's more remote, so pot hole and less than ideal road conditions are expected. If this had happened on Oak street you might have more of a case.

Its just like how you can't expect to get compenstation for popping a tire in the middle of nowhere.

I agree with liquid turbo. Winter happens, and we had a bad one. Then potholes happen. In our case, MANY of them. They can't possibly patch them all up the second all the snow and ice is gone.

Just accept it as bad luck, pay to get it fixed, and move on.

well i think it will be a good learning experience to see if i can get this money out of them.

Im going to try.

Like i said. the potholes should have been fixed. The damn matience trucks were driving over the pot holes several times a day. They knew they were there and it would have only took like 30 minutes or so to go and put some gravel into the holes untill they could properly fill them again.

Thanks for the replys!

i've started driving with one wheel either on the center line or shoulder to avoid hitting the ones i can't see, risking sideswiping other drivers, but everyone else has started to do it as well, or just weaving all over the place :(

Sorry dude, but I think you're SOL. If you look at the pics, beside every pothole there's a pile of gravel that looks like it had been recently washed out of it. It looks like those potholes WERE filled until the bad weather happened.

Since they can't fix potholes instantaneously (someone mentioned shoveling snow...even with that you have a 24 to 48 hr grace period, depending on the municipality), they're not technically negligent and therefore not accountable.

Sorry to say, but you'll just have to chalk this up to the wacky winter you guys are having...this is the reason I got a 4x4 as soon as I moved up north...225/75s handle potholes rather nicely ;)

Uh, this is Vancouver, people dont like to help each other out here :D :lol

I disagree, some pot holes sit around for DAYS, which is just ridiculous.

that pot hole is 100% spottable... you should have gone around it.

my co worker hit one 2 days ago by my work going 50. it was 5' wide (almost the whole lane), 2-3' long, and a few inches deep. and the whole road had an inch of water one it (above the level of the road). so there was no way to see it. dented and wrecked 2 steal rims and tires. one was flat a block later. and the spare was put on, 2nd one leaked slowly enough to get home.

that one he had no chance... yours you did.

are you sure that u were going at around 60kph???

You have a "high-profile" tire and yet you still managed to damage the rim X_x??

uhhhhhh.....you do know that BC has incredibly amazing roads, right? At most other places in Canada they have massive potholes sitting around for YEARS...

I was behind a truck. By the time i seen the pothole it was too late. And like i said. The pothole was there for days and days. The road matience people drove by it tons of times and just ignored them. Neglect.

oh and offroadzuki. The "gravel" on the side of the road is not "gravel" its little pieces of the ashphalt that came out of the road.

well, then that's just proof that it may not have been that big the last time they saw it.

Honestly, you guys are living in a dream world if you think "days" is a long time to wait for a pothole to be fixed, especially in the kind of weather you've been getting.

As for neglect...you just mentioned that they were clearing a mudslide...sounds like they had more important things on their minds than potholes.

If you're driving at 60km/h as you claim and you don't have enough time to avoid a plainly visible pothole like that, then you're tailgating. There's absolutely NO WAY you can miss something like that at 60km/h while following at a safe distance if you're paying attention.

Sure there is if you aren't constantly scanning the ground in front of you, you don't expect there to be gaping holes in the road....

I can understand your theory on Oak or somewhere you know is full of holes so you are scanning constantly, but you're just driving along behind another car on a highway you don't expect a big hole to pop up, you're being asinine with your thinking just leave the guy alone he hit a pothole that should have been filled and he's trying to get it covered by the company, why argue over whether someone could see it or not...

Because he's being a big crybaby about it and so are a lot of other people on here.

1: it's not like that's impossible to see. If you're so much as an average driver, that thing just screams at you.
2: everyone needs to realize that not everything can be fixed at the drop of a hat.
3: maybe people should take responsibility for their actions...that pothole is 100% avoidable if you're driving in a safe manner with average driving skills and the company sounds like they were diligent in clearing up the mudslide then taking care of said pothole within days...

It's going to cost like $80 to fix that, plus whatever it costs to have your tire re-re'd. Just get it done. If you think you have a case, send in the bill. You may feel better, but you'll get nothing done.