Aziners,

I need some major help and direction as I'm slightly confused on the route to take. Last night on my ride home from work I hit a pothole going at less then 20mph. The pothole was deep but from a distance it looked like the City of Chicago had already repaired it and put gravel and rocks as a temp solution. While unfortunately they didn't. I hit the pothole and my tire deflated, and my passenger side air bags went off. I removed the rim and put a spare on as I was only a few blocks from home, in those short few blocks it didn't feel as if anything was off with the suspension. The rim wasn't bent, and there doesn't seem to be a puncture or any visible damage to the tire. Both I and my passenger are ok. We have some whiplash and soreness but other wise nothing to severe.

Here is my ultimate question(s) to the long story. What do I do? I've never heard of air bags going off after a pothole, more importantly I hit a side wall on the expressway going 45 that caused a whole lot of suspension damage and the air bags didn't go off. I'm slightly hesitant to file a claim with insurance as this will mostly like be an at fault. Is there any way around that considering that this specific street is pothole heaven? Is it possible to point the finger at Acura, and say that the airbags should have never gone off, as I've read on the forums sometimes people have had the airbags go off while coming to a stop light. Do I go after the city for negligence?

Any help would be great and truly appreciated!

p.s. car is a 2008 Acura TL

Regards,
B.

 

If you don't file a claim with your insurance, replacing the airbag can be very expensive. I don't believe Acura would even give you the time of day for a six year old car, especially since you did have an impact and it didn't just go off on its own. You can ask around and see if there are others that suffered damage at that particular pothole so there can be a suit involving numerous parties, but if not, you'll be on your own there as well. If you immediately got out after the incident, took photos of the hole with your car still parked next to it with the blown airbag, it would help your cause, but most people don't think to do that at the time. Doing it afterwards will hold no water.

 

I live in San Antonio Texas and one time I hit a pothole and it bent my rim so I called the city they told me to write a letter and they would cover the cost of the rim...never did it but I hope that helps..

 

Personally I would think your city would have some liability in that regards. If I were you I would find a lawyer friend to talk to and see the possibility of heading that direction. I think you would have more luck that route than trying to do something through Acura. If the pothole was THAT big (must have been pretty huge to do all that damage) that is a highway safety issue.

 

Another reason I have a dash cam.

You can try going to the city, but tough luck trying to get Acura to do something.
Now if the air bag just blew up in your face out from no where, I would go to Acura for that.

 

Depends on where you live but the city should cover the cost of the rim.
In KS the pothole has to have been present long enough to give the city sufficient knowledge and time to repair it.
Whether or not they cover it is up to city ordinance.

 

If I see a repaired pothole , I still drive around it. Youre going to have to deal with the city on getting them to repair your wheel..etc.
It's going to take a couple of years btw.

Took me 3 years to get money from NYC when I damaged a strut and rim on a crater I drove into YEARRRSSSS ago.

 

I think you should go through your insurance, indicating to them that it was caused by driving it (inadvertently) into the pothole. Getting the city to pay for damage will be an exercise in frustration and even if they do pay, it'll take a very long time for them to pay up. Plus, how do you prove that you were there to run into the pothole in the first place. For now, you'll be on the hook for the deductible, but that will likely be a whole lot less than paying for the repairs out of pocket.

 

I'd go through the insurance.

Have any pics? I've always been curious what the passenger airbag looks like when it deploys and haven't found that many good shots of it.

Did it rip through the dash or did the dash pop up?

 

At least you know the airbags work!

 

i thought airbags worked from some sort of pressure sensor. that must of been one hell of a pot hole

 

You have whiplash and soreness from just a pothole?? Must have been a huge crater.