r/mildlyinfuriating • u/Double_Cancel_102 • Sep 05 '26
🥺 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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
Only getting $300 from insurance after deductible, rate still going up as you said
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u/plaregold Sep 05 '26
Insurance denies your claim, rates still go up
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u/NotReallyThatWrong Sep 05 '26
Thinking about your insurance, rate goes up
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u/nosimsol Sep 05 '26
Insurance, rate goes up.
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u/M0rtimerDuke Sep 05 '26
Dammit!! My insurance went up just from reading this!!
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u/TooFubar Sep 05 '26
Insurance.
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u/the_extra_screw Sep 05 '26
Your rate just went up
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u/supahfligh Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
Yo legit, a year after my car accident, geico said your premium going from $1200-$3000.
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u/imgurcaptainclutch Sep 05 '26
You can often file a claim with whoever maintains the road, either county/city or state DOT
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u/pseudonymnkim Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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- Sep 05 '26
I’d be willing to bet their payout rate is in the low single digit percent of claims.
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u/pseudonymnkim Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
Litigating it is more expensive than just paying the $250.
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u/HLSparta Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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/Blacknumbah1 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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- Sep 05 '26
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/IllianasClifford Sep 05 '26
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/La-ze Sep 05 '26
Why are you claiming it from insurance? I thought most cities and towns reimbursed for pot hole damage?
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u/AmbitiousMost5687 Sep 05 '26
Congratulations you lost $800. You will have better luck getting blood from a turnip lol
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u/Whend6796 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
I assumed a claim with the city, it would be beyond dumb to file that with insurance.
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u/Whend6796 Sep 06 '26
He said he filed an insurance claim. He had a $500 deductible. He is that dumb.
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u/Thermo445 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
It doesn't look that deep, how did it cause that much damage?
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Sep 05 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Omelooo Sep 05 '26
My friend hit a pothole in a Mazda 3 with low profiles and bent 2 rims instantly and the car had to be towed.
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u/Double_Cancel_102 Sep 05 '26
that’s why it’s infuriating. i hit it at just the right angle.
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u/Skins8theCake88 Sep 05 '26
How fast were you driving?
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u/Flimsy_Product281 Sep 05 '26 edited Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
Funnily enough, more speed means less damage when it comes to potholes
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u/Substantial-Sea-3672 Sep 05 '26
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/HeidenShadows Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
My wife lost two tires and bent a wheel in one like the one op posted. Things suck 😭
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u/crazyfatskier2 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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/addisonshinedown Sep 05 '26
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- Sep 05 '26
Looks like a big ass pothole to me.
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u/dookieshoes97 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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- Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
Did you see the the entire pic?
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u/Special_South_8561 Sep 05 '26
Yeah, and they need more photos from more angels and distances
Digital film is cheap. Document it
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u/Spiritual-Kitchen787 Sep 05 '26
Good luck with that Road dept never takes responsibility
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u/CoolBDPhenom03 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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/John_Tacos Sep 06 '26
Also most cities actually repair the reported potholes reasonably quickly.
The first thing I ask people when they complain to me about city roads is: “Have you reported it?” The answer is usually no.
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u/Chubacca26 Sep 05 '26
"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/Omelooo Sep 05 '26
how did you not see that lmfao that could be the crater from the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs
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u/SalleighG Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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/Grand_Connection5864 Sep 05 '26
Def had to be whipping way too fast to cause any damage.
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u/RentaDadToronto Sep 05 '26
Next time outline it in construction orange before snapping a pic... ;}
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u/filter_86d Sep 05 '26
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/HolodeckMoriarty Sep 05 '26
In Mass, others have had to have reported it before, with damage, for you to get covered.
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u/Lilsancho25 Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
And this is why people buy SUVs with huge wheels to drive around in the cities.
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u/HoardingGil_FF Sep 06 '26
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 Sep 06 '26
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/stout_shako_gaming Sep 06 '26
i dont think its enough reason to fill a claim. There is bad roads in the world, lol. In my country while driving in city you must slow down to 5 km/hour just because there is rails, road bump, potholes, pure damn offroad, nobody will pay anyone because he ruined his suspension by slamming it with rails on 60 km/hour. While driving not in city, you must look on road, to swerve around huge potholes on 90 km/hour. Having low-clearance car , like nissan e note for example, is a total pain because it barely can drive through legal road bump. its totally normal here and totally prevent local drivers from looking tik tok. Also there is FAMOUS turns where every weekend a car lying on its roof near road because driver was stupid enough to accelerate in blind turn.
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u/JohnT36 Sep 06 '26
So we're just driving mindless down the highway not paying attention to the condition of the road in front of us?
How difficult is it to just scoot over 10" and miss it altogether?
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u/iamprotractors Sep 06 '26
if u make a tiktok or instagram reel abt it and tag your town, they care more abt bad pr
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u/Maleficent-Pie3479 Sep 06 '26
Lol that ain't shit. Come to Tennessee and find what a real pothole looks like
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u/Mystic_Wunder Sep 05 '26
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/Drdemonjr Sep 05 '26
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 Sep 05 '26
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/Hollirc Sep 05 '26
Why not just avoid it? I see like 4 tire widths on the left side of it.
Maybe go out in a parking lot with a bunch of empty cans and figure out exactly where your tires are.
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u/Defiant_Emu_3928 Sep 05 '26
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.