Stuart Hall is still livid over the Kansas City pothole that ate his car — blew two tires, bent one rim — and left him with a $410 bill, towing not included.
“I’m still pissed,” he said.
That was over a pothole not from today, with thousands of them in the wake of a harsh winter still pockmarking roads from Liberty to Olathe, turning the Kansas City area’s streetscape lunar. It’s from six years back, when a crater-like pothole opened at Brookside Boulevard and 50th Street, rattling the bones of his then wife, Christina, along with the undercarriage of their Mazda 6. Equally rattling is what happened when Hall tried to get the city to pay him back for the damage: Nothing.
Even after a formal appeal, he received not a dime. Not a penny. But applicable to every pothole-pounded driver thinking of holding their city accountable, he did receive a valuable lesson:
“This year and every year since,” said Hall, 48, and now of Grain Valley, “I feel 100 percent certain that if we hit a pothole and we’re damaged, we are on our own. … I would love to know how often they (a city) would pay out a claim.”
Answer: Hardly ever.
(Read more: KC Star Local News)