jeshie7

hello everybody,

i needed some advice.... yesterday i was leaving philadelphia and i hit a man hole that was very high out of the ground because construction, no construction signs or anything of that sort was around also lighting in the area was horrible. so i hit the man hole and it ripped both my passenger side tires and bent my rims to the point where they cant even hold air. its pretty bad now i was wondering is there anyone i can contact to ask them to fix this or am i ***** outta luck. and my wheels are giovanna its not gonna be cheap to replace.... any advice could help

thanks,

jesh

Pearlpower

iTrader: (2)

Jesh
Very sorry to hear. I can relate which is why I no longer spend $$$ on wheels. I recently bent one of my wheels and a replacement was a drop in the bucket. Had it been a super expensive wheel I would have teared up a bit.
Have you tried a wheel repair center? They work wonders and bring things back to new condition. Many offer mail order repairs as well.
Lee

lexuslover

sorry to hear of the mishap

my sister experienced the exact same thing (in San Diego) and basically contacted the city's gas/electric department. apparently it is not that uncommon that manholes are left uncovered and cause accidents. she got lucky although it nearly flipped her Pathfinder after losing control running over the hole at about 50mph. in the end SDG&E paid for her repairs 100% since it is a huge liability to leave those things open. there were plenty of witnesses and pictures were taken on the spot with skid marks and everything.

i don't know how Philly city offices work (although I went to Univ of PA for undergrad); hopefully they are helpful and have a similar policy. the only thing is having proof and knowing exactly where/when it was left open.

rominl

iTrader: (4)

sorry to hear that jesh.... it's all about finding a good shop to repair it i guess. i know we have a pretty good one here in norcal, but it takes a while to fix a wheel. not sure if there are any good ones over there?

hipendicul

Well here's my story and its still going on. I had hit a huge man made hole that had taken out both of my Kinesis K59 wheels (about $900 a piece) and took out both my tires.

Well in a nut shell, here's what the city said. The only way the city will even think about paying for the damages, is that they would have to either known previously about the damage to the street (so no new potholes) or it would have to be something they did that caused the damage (if a contractor did it, then your out of luck). Then once you passed that, then they would need to see proof of what caused the damage and why they are liable. If you happen to have all that (which I did), then you would need to file a claim and wait about 3 months for them to look into the situation.

I ruined my wheels on jan 2nd this year and the city just got back to me saying that it happened outside of their city and that I need to take it up with the "other" city. Great.

I would say that if you took pictures and keep your receipts then i would file a claim with the city clerk. Its free and all they can say is "no". But maybe, just maybe.. there might be a check with your name on it..

cliffud

iTrader: (3)

i say it's worth the shot man. go take photos of the scene and get some side shots with the camera really really low to the ground to illustrate how high that man hole cover is above the surrounding pavement.

use a soda can in the photo to help reference how high the bump is and take some photographs of other things like speed bumps that may be just as high but since they have rounded edges, no damage is ever done even at higher than normal speed bump speeds.

good luck man. I hate reading stories like this because I don't want to jack up my Work wheels.

CO-LS400

Fightin city hall .....

I hope you get reimbursed.. good luck though.. It will take months.
But if your persistent you may get paid.

That happened to me in NJ.. I hit the mother of all potholes going 55mph on 287north

I bent all 4 OZ racing rims.. all four.. they wobbled like hell. Unrepairable.

I went back the next day and took pics.. but to my dismay THEY FILLED UP AND REPAIRED THE POTHOLE.. to sum it up I got stuck with the bill.

Act fast!!

Tammy

Isn't this why you pay for insurance ?