Pothole causes $2000 in damage; state won't pay to repair
A Tigard man hits pothole in car getting onto I-5 in Southwest Portland causing more than $2000 in damage.
Brandon Maxwell said he was driving home from work on Nov. 19, 2011 when he hit the pothole near Southwest Hood Avenue and Southwest Lane Street entering the freeway.
"It popped two tires and broke my rear wheel in half," said Maxwell, causing about $2200 in damage.
He couldn't drive his car home so he called a tow truck and paid $176 for the ride home.
The next day Maxwell called the city of Portland to see about getting reimbursed for the damage but was told to call Oregon Department of Transportation(ODOT) about the claim since it happened on a freeway onramp.
Maxwell filed a claim with the Oregon Department of Administrative Services (DAS) Risk Management Division.
Two weeks later, his claim was denied stating DAS "cannot always guarantee safe driving conditions will exist."
"They said they had no knowledge so it's not their fault," Maxwell said.
ODOT spokesman, Don Hamilton, said each case is looked at on a case by case basis.
"ODOT is responsible to repairing the roads but ODOT does not make the decision about whether to reimburse motorists for damages caused to a car," Hamilton said.
That is up the states Risk Management Division. Penny Evans, Claims Manager with DAS said the first step in determining whether to reimburse a driver for damage done to their vehicle is to ask ODOT when they first knew about the problem.
Evans said the state has to be found at fault for a claim to be fulfilled.
"If we don't know about a problem we can't fix it," Evans said.
But Maxwell said he has been avoiding the same pothole that damaged his car for about a year, he had just managed to avoid it.
Safe Repair Tigard Or - News
A Tigard man hits pothole in car getting onto I-5 in Southwest Portland causing more than $2000 in damage. Brandon Maxwell said he was driving home from work on Nov. 19, 2011 when he hit the pothole near Southwest Hood Avenue and Southwest Lane Street
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