BiturboBoy_V2.0_S3--

done to their cars? Well, about a month adn a half ago I ran over part of a manhole cover lying int eh center of my lane and partially open an open manhole...yeah ouch. i hit the open manhole as a result of trying to avoid the cover(no flames please). as a result the actual man hole cover did some damage to the underside of the car as well as the hole or the cover causing bent wheels(both drivers side wheels) and popped tires. My question is this, should i file against the city myself, or let insurance deal with it. Tallying everything up (including replacing 2 expensive AVUS wheels, dealer price for tires (i needed to get up and running right away..so i ahd them moutned on some spares rims i had at a dealer), parts for undercarriage damage along with labor....the total cost of replacing/reapiring things is quite substantial. IT is many many tiems by comprehensive deductible (wchih would be waived anyways since they would go after teh township for the money). My fear with filing with insurance is that they will dick my on the labor rate and make me actually use the money for replacing AVUS wheels on replacing AVUS wheels. Please try to convince me one way or the other.

BostonMarkC

after getting a flat on a pothole. She has a Suburban, so as you can imagine this was a BIG pothole!

self imposed exile

Sue yourself and bring meticulous records including photographs of the site of the accident and try to get city public works crew locations and schedules. E-mail if you have specific questions.

O.W. Kenobi

6 months to file a claim is not unheard of. Hurry up and decide.

Cybernetic_SamuraiĀ®

Is contact the city "risk management" office. They should find out WHO was at fault: city or contractor. From there you can seek recourse with the proper group. Sometimes, you don't even need to involve your insurance company as was the case in a bent rim that I had gotten...

Rob O

In my case, the car in front of me passed over a loose man hole cover and it stood straight up, surface side facing me as I plowed into it at 45 mph. I was in traffic, so no time to react (and no open lanes in which to move even if I'd had time). It did over $5k in damage (this was in '98).

I filed a claim with the city utility, who had to investigate. They wanted to put blame on the electric utility who use their pipe network, but ultimately they found a crew had been working in that hole the day of my incident, and that the lid (man hole cover) had probably not been set correctly. They paid my insurance co for all damages and reimbursed me for the $1,300 rental car bill resulting from nearly 3 mos of waiting on parts to complete the repair.

It took a couple months to get it all worked out, 'cause the City moves slow, but the timing was inline with the length of repair in my case ... so no biggie. They (townships, cities, ect.) have claims departments and will investigate.