Man hole covers of doom
Yesterday, after dinner, I’m driving down Columbia Pike in Bailey’s Crossroads, and smack a manhole cover that is apparently so far above ground (because the area around it sunk into the ground) that it smacks the exhaust system in my car. After, my exhaust system sounds like a pimped out Honda Civic with a 5” coffee can on the back. But louder.
I just got back from the Nissan dealer (who was open on Saturday, and since my car is nearly a 350Z is competent to deal with it), and it’s going to cost me $800 in parts alone, and another $175 in labor to fix. Why? Because it cracked a flange mounting between two pieces of the exhaust system, bending one, and tearing the other. This forces both toe be replaced, and each are $350+. The joys.
So the question is, can I go after Falls Church, or whomever is over this stupid road for leaving such a huge risk in the middle of the road. I was going 30mph, max, since I had just started from a stop light, and to have done nearly a thousand dollars in damage is absurd.
Of course, now I’m driving this for a week while parts are ordered. It’s 90dB loud inside the car, and the same outside. It’s not fun.
Update: Apparently, in NoVA, if it’s a VDOT maintained road (which this is, Route 244), you can call 703-383-2335 to initiate the process of claims. This is basically impossible to find out on the web, but I was able to get it from a nice person at the VDOT/NoVA office.
This entry was posted at 10:57 am on 21 August 2004 and is filed under Cars. You can follow any responses to this entry through the post-specific RSS 2.0 feed.
well, someone was good enough to help me track down the information. :-)
At least it wasn’t one of the regions infamous exploding manhole covers.
Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.
I’m glad you were able to find what you needed to get that resolved.