Bad Saturday Night

After hitting a local cruise-in my dad and I were driving home in my 53 chevy. We turned into my neighborhood and I misjudged how tall a manhold cover was and my car stopped dead in its tracks.(My neighborhood is being converted from sewer to septic and the city left the manhole about 5 inches above level) There are no seat belts in the car so my dad was thrown forward and cut his head on part of the roof. I went forward into the steering wheel. Luckily I was turning right so my head hit the back of my left wrist but my chest and rib cage hit the steering wheel. My dad had to have 7 staples put in his head to stop the bleeding. I have had my car inspected by the State Police in order to get historic plates so I know that my car is not too low. This manhole cover is literally 4-6 inches above ground which you can not see when turning from a main road on to a residential road. I feel like the city should be liable for the damages to my car. I will find out tomorrow how bad the damage is but it looks mostly like the body panels were all just tweaked out of alignment and I may have possibly broken a coil spring. Has anyone on here had to file a complaint with the city about a road hazard that damaged their vehicle? What should I do? In my pics the car is lower because the coil spring is busted and the pictures are taken from uphill.

 

I forgot to mention that the cop was a real jerk. He took a look at the car and said i could contact the city if i wanted to but they wouldnt do anything because the car was low. The car was only lowered 4" in the front. It had plenty of clearance to drive. It was inspected by the state police when i plated it. Nothing was ever said about the ride height at that point. Am I within my rights to feel that the city should have to pay for my damages? Are there any lawyers on here? I might need one if the city does not cooperate..............

 

I was looking at your pictures and sort of thinking to myself that your roads look just like our crappy roads around here. Kind of like being in a third world country sometimes. Then I noticed you are In Indy and realized you are only about 60 miles from me. Hmmm.

Guess the mayors must drive sport utes to not notice this stuff (or maybe this road is not the road to the politicians neighborhoods...

Seriously, hope you guys are all right and sorry to hear about the car damage...

 

glad you guys are okay, damn any higher and it woulda ripped out the front end...., nothin a lil hammer and dolley work won't fix....lol...yeah i would file a formal complaint to the citty council, maybe itll go to court???, they should pay for it,...

god bless you

luke

 

Just go to City Hall and file a compliant. Follow the procedures that they require. Likely will not be fast to repond or admit any guilt. If they deny claim then take them to small claims court. See if there is any free legal counsel in your area to help you out.

 

Interesting to see a Harley Davidson license plate on the front of the sheriffs car... Bet if he had hit that deal at a slight angle on his motorcycle he would be pissed...

I think you are likely screwed on having anyone pay for your repairs. What street were you on? Is it considered city/state/county??

 

I got the city to pay for damages to my daily driver a few years back. They are responsible to maintain our roads,after all we pay taxes right!
Stand your ground.Thankfully you guy's didn't get hurt any worse! Document everything!

 

More than the repairs of the car I am upset with wht my dad had to go through tonight. We were just out having a good time cruising together and then the road decided to stop us.

It is a city road.

 

You guys should think about seat belts instead of lawsuits. Sorry to hear about your luck, I used to live in indy and the roads are freakin terrible. I set my cars up accordingly. Your car is really low even if you want to try and justify it, these things just come with being low. Welcome to the flipside of hardcoreness and hope you guys heal up okay.

 

I hope the fuckers pay up but I don't like your chances!
Have o ask why they would go from sewer to septic, that going back wards! Are they taking away the running water and electricity next?

 

Good Luck!

 

Back in the 90's, had the same thing happen, and the city had to pay me for 'all' damages. First, take lots and lots of pics......document, document, document....get a licensed repair shop to look at it, maybe 2-3, and get repair quotes. Even though they are doing road work, they can not leave hazards like that. They have to have them marked, or have traffic re-routed to avoid it.

 

The camera is your friend....

 

We have bad roads up here that frost heave in the spring. Potholes everywhere and other issues.
Around here we have to be able to PROVE that the Council KNEW about an issue and did nothing. If they can show that they had no reports of an issue OR acted upon it (warning signs anywhere handy...whatever) then your out of luck!
That works out great for them, don't it???

Anyway....my guess is you'll have to suck it up AND hope you don't have to pay for damage to the manhole caused by your "modified" vehicle! You DID make it lower by altering it...and how many "safe" cars drive over that same manhole without hooking it everyday??? Thats the spin the city will put on it...just wait and see!

Hope everything works out for ya...but my personal experiences with our city were a bit of a lesson to me.
Keep an eye on your Dad. Head hits can haunt you later...

 

dude sorry to hear about that...the roads are like that here too....it seems the taxes to repair the roads keep going up but the road conditions keep going down. tell me how that works

 

was the road hazard clearly marked?? If it was not, then I would go after the city for repairs. But, as said above, document and take pics.

 

sorry to hear you guys got hurt. If your crossmember is below the scrub line, you probably don't have much of a case.

Document it, and do what you can though.

 

The contractor doing the work is liable for the damages. The city should have an escrow account to pay for any claims or damage. You'll have to get bids and submit them. Same thing happened to me, minus physical injury. Good luck.

 

cop can't say anything about the ride height,it's been documented that it's legal by the state patrol. a man hole cover that high would even damage a lot of new stock height cars, there's no reason it shouldn't have a barrel or something over it. I think you ca win this one.

 

as high as that is, it would damage a lot of new cars,looks like the city dug up the road around it,and left it sticking way up with no markings.

 

MOST, if not all, cities and towns have insurance covering damages to citizen's vehicles from inadequate maintenance(pothols, etc.) and hazards(too high manholes in the middle of streets, etc) which are not marked by warning signage or appropriate safety lights or barriers.
Get your ruler out there and MEASURE the height of that manhole and take a clear picture of it up close and at a distance showing it IS the hazard in question. Then measure your car's road clearance, same thing, picture etc.

After doing this, measure various new cars' road clearance in your driveway and neighborhood.

If you still think you have a case, see the appropriate city department head OR, better, see YOUR city councilman, and have his help getting the right procedure to get your case heard. If you get a runaround, see an Attorney and get his opinion, sometimes a letter from an attorney is all the grease you need to make the city wheels turn in your favor. And don't forget compensation for your and your fathers injuries and medical bills.

Have your car inspected carefully at a frame shop, Coming to a complete stop at any speed can be damaging to the frame as well as the body.

One more thing...remember that the four inches of lowering you did with 50 year old springs is likely the equivalent of 8 inches of lowering had you been using NEW springs.

GET THOSE SEATBELTS OUT OF THE PACKAGES AND INSTALLED IN THE CAR!
2 up front and 3 in the back.
NO ONE WITH ANY COMMON SENSE DOES NOT INCLUDE SEATBELTS IN THEIR BUILD, THIS ONE AND EVERY ONE.

 

You think the roads there are bad; drive around Chicago, and you'll see some real shitty roads! I have heard on the local news (chanel 9), of people having their whole a arm and front wheel being ripped off, due to large sink holes. Matter of fact, they had a pic in the Tribune this past winter; of a person standing in a sink hole (not a pot hole), and the hole went past their knee! A buddy of mine in the Marines, said a lot of the streets in Iraq are better than those in Chicago

Anyway's a least you and your father are ok (even with the injuries). As you said, you will probably have to Lawyer up. Maybe see if SAN (Sema Action Network) will help you? Good luck!

 

After looking under my '06 Civic and '02 Trans Am and measuring I can see there's only 5-1/2" on the Civic and 5" on the Trans Am of ground clearnace at the front subrame/front crossmember. That's with nobody sitting in either of them, they'd go down close to another inch or more with passengers inside.

A new Corvette is even lower than that by close to a couple of inches, they are a very low car and would never clear that raised manhole cover. The 'vettes are actually raised up at the factory so they can be loaded onto the car haulers and get lowered to their normal ride height by turning some adjusting screws when they arrive at the dealer.

That manhole cover was definitely a road hazard that shouldn't have been left that way for any cars to pass over.

Your car repairs and hospital bills should be paid for by the city.

 

Second that. Looks as though your car hit the road before it arrived at the manhole.

 

that stinks - but you sign up for it by driving a low car.

 

Probably too late now, but when I use to photograph accident scenes, I included a tape measure ( to show length of ? ,etc) and or any visual aid for size that any one seeing the photos would know the size of ) credit card come to mind- I'd have some low street level pics w/ the CC propped up next to the m-hole cover . Just a thought.
I also had a wipe off board / w/ date, etc. ( readable too ) some where in each photo.. Think of it as each pic HAS to tell the story the judge may not let you tell in court... but.....
He can also take said photos in his chambers to inspect at his leisure. etc..
Hope any of this helps..
-41-
-14-

 

I used to work for DOT road maintenance here in Alaska. We always had to mark things like that. I would take tons of pictures of the area, the car, and find a newer vehicle that has the same clearance your car has. After you get your estimates they will send out an adjuster and then the negotiations will begin. As far as medical claims im sure they are gonna play the should have seat belt card and a judge will probably side with them on that. There theory will be you spent all the money on lowering and blah blah that you should have invested some in seat belts. Good luck but it is a time consuming process.
I had one of those car counter rubber hoses wrap up in the front tire of my ex wife freshly painted 68 ss camaro took out a tire, and beat the heck out of the fender. State paid for all damages.
Good luck

 

Hope your pops is OK .

 

sorry to hear about your misfortune i hope you are both ok.I dont know where are taxes go when you see unfinished or shitty work like this,Its their fault but they will sure as hell try to tell you that it was yours,becarful city councils are swindlers and liars to the extreme.

 

A good friend almost lost his wife about 15yrs ago by the same thing. They had the bitchenest 66 Nova 2dr wagon, It was in a few magazines and one day she was on her way home and the same thing, she hit it at 45mph and it stopped it cold. tore the seatbelt, threw her into the steering wheel and windshield. she was in the hospital for almost 2 months. anyway they made a claim with the city and were told, sorry were not responsable your car was to low. got a lawyer and took them to the cleaners. I don't like lawyers or insurance co's but the bottom line is get one and get the city to pay up, if they know you got a lawyer they won't play games with ya.