SAN DIEGO — If you’ve been out driving on the roads, then you’ve seen for yourself that potholes have been appearing more often and have grown in size with the recent rainfall from passing storms. CBS 8’s Brian White hit the roadways to see how the rain has affected potholes around town.
“Oh yeah, there’s some really big ones out there today and quite dangerous,” said driver, David Perry.
CBS 8 found a slew of big potholes, which cars were actively trying to dodge, on the corner of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard and Convoy Street. And while driving on Balboa Avenue, cars had to weave in and out of lanes to avoid one pothole after another, with a gigantic pothole west of the I-805 coned off in the far-right westbound lane.
“It’s kind of like playing frogger trying to avoid them with cars that are, you know, going along with the flow of traffic,” said Perry.
CBS 8 spotted Anna Mills and her family pulled along the side of Convoy Street after having run over a pothole, which blew their tire minutes earlier.
“It tore up the front end of my Jaguar tire and it’s terrible, it’s going to tear up everybody’s cars,” said Mills. “I felt a big bump and also the fender of my front tire go into the hole. My whole tire side was wobbling.”
Mills called Triple AAA roadside assistance, but the lug nuts on her tire would not come off manually, so her Jaguar was towed to a nearby tire shop.
Despite the inconvenience, Mills was happy to learn she could be reimbursed by the City of San Diego for the car damage because it was caused by a pothole.
“Last week, we were getting 100+ pothole notifications a day,” said Anthony Santacroce, Senior Public Information Officer for the City of San Diego.
Nine trucks and crews work hard patching potholes around the City of San Diego every day, often patching thirty or more in a day, and with the rain, they’ve seen a noticeable uptick in reports.
“What happens is the rain, the water comes down, gets into those cracks, gets under the asphalt, and destabilizes the base layer,” said Santacroce. “And once you destabilize the base layer and then a big truck with its wheels comes and just keeps hitting that pothole, you kind of break it up, right, and the top layers just kind of crumble apart.”
But what if a pothole damages your car?
If it meets certain standards, drivers could file a claim with the city here.
If a driver notices damage to his or her car after he or she hits a pothole in the City of San Diego he or she should immediately document any damage. That includes taking plenty of pictures to have the most accurate claim possible.
All claims must be made in writing, accurately completed, printed, signed by the claimant, and mailed or personally presented in hard copy format to:
City of San Diego Risk Management Department
1200 Third Ave., Suite 1000
San Diego, CA 92101
Drivers must file their claim no later than six months after the date of the incident or event.
Also, it is a good idea for drivers to attach any other relevant information and estimates for repairs. In fact, the City of San Diego said says drivers should, in their written claim, state justification for loss through repair estimates and photographs of the damage.