If you hit a big pothole on the road, what should you check in your car?

Fell into a hole - got into an accident?

First you need to figure out whether there was an accident. PP will help you not to be unfounded. 1.2. clause 1 of the traffic rules. We have already written in detail about what falls under an accident. Of this definition, we are interested in the part that talks about damage to the vehicle
and causing
material damage
(namely, a broken wheel, damaged disk, suspension, body, etc.).
And since we are talking about an accident, then the sequence of actions must comply with the requirements of clauses 2.5, 2.6, 2.6.1 of the Russian Traffic Regulations.

We fell into a hole and damaged the car. How to sue the road service for money?

And first of all, we note that a traffic accident does not necessarily involve the participation of two or more vehicles. Any damage to a car while it is moving is an accident.

The second important point: in Russian legislation there is a GOST established for the permissible dimensions of a pothole on the road - the maximum dimensions should not exceed 15 cm in length, 60 cm in width, and 5 cm in depth (GOST 50597-93 “Roads and streets. Requirements for operational condition acceptable under the conditions of ensuring road safety").

Third: in the event of an accident, always call the traffic police to the scene of the accident. Yes, they may not want to travel for such a “minor” event, but you should have a certificate of the accident on hand for further proceedings.

So, let's say all the conditions are met. An accident occurred, the car received some damage, and the traffic police inspector recorded this. If the pothole that caused the accident exceeds the parameters from GOST, you can make a claim for damages either to the owner of the road or to the person who must maintain it.

How do you figure out who to contact? There are several options.

1. Order an extract from the register of highways. This can be done, among other things, using the State Services website - the service is provided by the Federal Road Agency, it is called “Information contained in the Unified State Register of Highways.” The owner of the road will be indicated on the statement. However, the problem is that most of the information is not included in this register for some reason. Therefore, this method may not give the desired result.

2. File a complaint either with the local administration or with the local improvement committee. They may answer negatively to the claim itself, but at the same time they will indicate who is responsible for maintaining the road (as a rule, government contracts are concluded for the maintenance and repair of roads). It will take some time, but you will know exactly who to file a claim for damages from.

Important!

No management companies or homeowners associations are responsible for potholes on the roads!

Once you have determined who to file your claim with, attach copies of all documents related to the accident and confirming the amount you want to recover. It can be:

1. Certificate of accident;
2. Map of the accident scene;
3. Receipts for payment for tow truck services, if any;
4. Conclusion of the examination (it is better to do it), contract for the examination;
5. Receipts for payment of the examination;
6. Any other documents that support your position.

Submit your claim either in person or by mail with a list of the attachments. When submitting a claim in person, you will be given the incoming number of your claim on one copy of the claim.

Important!

Be sure to save either a copy with the incoming number or a shipping receipt with a description of the attachment.

The Highway Patrol will have 30 days to give you a response. Unfortunately, many car owners never go to court after receiving a negative response from road workers. This has led to the fact that at the stage of filing a claim, road services more often refuse to compensate for damage, which they do not hesitate to admit in private conversations outside the courtroom.

If you receive a negative answer from the road service, you have the right to go to court. If your demands do not exceed 50,000 rubles, then contact the magistrate’s court at the location of the defendant (legal address of the road service). If they exceed - to the district (also at the location of the road service). We act similarly in the case of an insurance company.

Important!

The highway department or insurance company you have a dispute with may have several buildings at different addresses. Be careful, you need a legal address.

What should I include with my claim? All the same documents as for the claim, plus:

1. The claim itself with the incoming number;
2. Original receipt for payment of state duty;
3. Any document from the administration or improvement committee indicating who is responsible for maintaining this road (if any);
4. The road service's response to your complaint.

Some of these documents you can submit immediately in the form of originals, others - in the form of copies. At the court hearing, the judge will ask you to present the originals of all documents. But the receipt for payment of the state duty is attached immediately in the ORIGINAL!

You submit 2 sets of documents to the court - for the court and for the defendant. The original state fee and all other originals are included in the court kit. The defendant’s kit includes the statement of claim itself and those documents that he does not have.

Example. If at the stage of the claim you already presented the defendant with, for example, an expert opinion, then you do not need to attach it again. The main thing is that the claim itself indicates what documents you are attaching to it. It is also logical to assume that the road service has their own response to the complaint.

What to refer to in court?

Argument 1

. According to the Federal Law “On Road Traffic Safety”, the responsibility for ensuring compliance of the condition of roads during their maintenance with established rules, standards, technical norms and other regulatory documents rests with the persons engaged in the maintenance of highways.

Argument 2

. According to Part 1, Clause 1 and Clause 2 of Art. 1064 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation, harm caused to the person or property of a citizen is subject to compensation in full by the person who caused the harm.

Argument 3

. The plaintiff was moving on an asphalt surface and was not obliged to assume that on his way there might be similar damage to the road surface in the absence of appropriate road signs warning drivers about repairs in accordance with the requirements of clause 4.1.1, clause 4.1.6 of GOST R 50597-93 .

Theoretically, you can also ask to recover compensation for moral damage in your favor, but Russian courts, as a rule, do not compensate for moral damage in such cases.

As judicial practice shows, if the accident and the claim are filed correctly, then your chances of compensation are very high. If the judge makes a decision not in your favor, remember the opportunity to appeal the decision to a higher authority. For a magistrate's court it will be a district court, and for a district court it will be a city court.

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Conclusion

To avoid unpleasant situations and avoid getting your wheel into a hole, try to minimize risks and follow traffic regulations.

• Obey the speed limit (reduce your speed if you notice signs of repairs on the road). Be especially careful when driving through puddles.
• Increase the distance to the vehicle in front, leaving room for maneuver. This advice is especially relevant at night and in bad weather.

But if, even after taking all precautions, an accident could not be avoided, follow a clear algorithm and try not to miss a single detail.

Good luck on the roads!

Photo: depositphotos.com

I fell into a hole and damaged a wheel - how to get compensation? ZR instructions

What actions need to be taken?

After falling into a pothole on the road and calling the traffic police, the driver must immediately decide who will compensate for the damage to the vehicle. If a driver seriously damages his car when he falls into a hole on the road, then it is worth filing a lawsuit against the road service employees responsible for this section of the route.

To do this, it is necessary to collect a sufficient evidence base in advance. You can do this yourself, after calling the traffic police (by number 102). To do this you need:

• To quickly find eyewitnesses of the accident. If this can be done, then you need to find out their contact phone number in order to contact them later (the presence of witnesses will help you win in court);
• Take photographs and (if possible) video recordings of the incident;

The photographs should show the place where the driver fell into the hole (street name). Separately, you need to take a photo of the hole itself on the road. Photo of the vehicle from an angle that shows its registration plates. Photo of the consequences of falling into a hole on the road. Photos of road signs around the vehicle as evidence that there was no warning about the presence of a pothole on the road.

After an independent “investigation,” the driver must wait for the traffic police to arrive.

After their arrival, you need to carefully monitor what exactly the traffic police officers photographed, and whether they missed what the driver himself was able to record.

It is also worth considering that the maximum permissible size of potholes on the road should not exceed:

• Fifteen centimeters along the length of the pit;
• Sixty centimeters across the width of the pit;
• Five centimeters in depth of the pit;

Traffic police officers must take measurements when inspecting the site where they fell into a hole on the road. If they did not do this, it is worth pointing out this defect to them or taking the measurement yourself. If, upon measurement, it turns out that the size of the pit is less than the established maximum canons, there is no point in bringing the case to court. The probability of winning is as low as possible.

How does a hole appear on the road?

It doesn’t take any special effort for a hole to appear on the road surface. The whole process of the appearance of potholes and holes begins with a puddle. True, there should be a small crack in the asphalt at the bottom. It is the crack that is filled with rainwater. But then cars play a big role, which, due to their weight, cause the crack to fill with water even more. The size of the asphalt damage increases, and first a small, and then a large hole appears at the site of the crack.

The more intense the traffic on the damaged section of the road, the faster the size of the defect in the asphalt increases.

Diagnosing a car after falling into a hole: what to check

You hit a hole in the road with your wheel. What to do if you identify problems with your car that appeared after an accident? For example, your wheel bearing was humming for a long time, but you did not immediately fix the problem, and after the car fell into a hole, the bearing broke into pieces and the wheel jammed. This example shows that you need to monitor the technical condition of the car, regularly do technical inspections, during which the chassis and other parts responsible for safety and comfort while driving on the road will be diagnosed.

1. Tires and wheels - assess visual damage.

A large hole on the road will definitely affect the car's wheel. There is no need to drive further if you hit a deep obstacle on the road without slowing down. The correct thing to do is: stop driving, get out of the car and check for any visible damage to your wheel. You can visually inspect the condition of the tires and wheels. You need to make sure that there is no damage to the wheel. What to do if:

• There are cuts on the tire rubber at the site of the collision; the tire is flat and cannot be repaired. You need to install a spare tire and replace the tires on the damaged one.
• The tires are not damaged, but there is a hernia on the side of the wheel. This happens quite often with wheels with weak sidewalls and not of the best quality. You cannot ride on a wheel with a hernia; you need to replace the tires.
• The rubber does not appear to be damaged, but the tire goes flat, and if you try to inflate it, it does not hold pressure. Visit a tire shop and try to repair the wheel after it has fallen into the hole.
• The disc bent in the area of ​​impact. You can continue driving on the damaged wheel, but you need to be careful; it is advisable to exchange it for a spare wheel at the nearest car service center.
• The cast disc is cracked. In such a situation, you cannot continue driving, because you can get into an accident at any moment. Replace the wheel with a spare one.

Hernias and cuts on tires after a wheel hits a hole are quite common occurrences. Tire manufacturers have recently begun to make special series of products for Russian roads. This type of rubber for wheels is a tire with a reinforced side part, which has a lower level of comfort, but it is not susceptible to hernias and other problems if you get into a hole.

Discs also need to be chosen carefully. If you have to drive on roads with poor surfaces every day, it is advisable to get by with stamped wheels rather than cast ones. And it’s better not to buy budget alloy wheels made in China.

2. Steering and wheel alignment.

If you fall into a hole on the road, then in the future malfunctions may occur in various vehicle systems, for example, in the steering. Perhaps the tips have lost the integrity of their fastening, the rods bend freely under strong impacts, or the rack has become faulty.

In practice, there have been examples when, due to the poor condition of the roads, not only the wheels were damaged, but also the steering columns, which then needed major repairs or complete replacement. After you hit a hole with your wheel, check:

• Steering rod, ends and it is better to have this done at a car service center.
• Steering wheel control system mounts: they often fail after falling into even a small hole.
• The main connections of the steering system with the column, rack, wheels to make sure there are no faults.
• Steering rack - just turn the steering wheel with the car running and off. If there is a malfunction, you will hear a knocking sound and notice unusual behavior of the steering wheel that has not been observed before.
• Stabilization system - since it is connected to the steering, it can also be damaged by an impact. A deep hole in the road can also cause it to break down.

All vehicle systems must be checked during the annual maintenance. The danger of hidden breakdowns is that constant, even seemingly small, irregularities on the road surface can lead to more serious malfunctions of the car. If you often get into potholes on the road, then full testing of your car should be done regularly. Periodic inspection is a guarantee of reliable operation of the car without unpleasant consequences.

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3. Chassis – what breaks most often in pits.

On Russian roads covered with potholes and uneven surfaces, you most often run the risk of damaging your wheels and suspension. The chassis of any vehicle has certain features, so it is necessary to take into account the quality and appearance of the latter. Traditional options have the same type of problems; a car service center will quickly identify the problems and be able to begin repairs.

Check carefully:

• Strut supports: these are the most common car parts that suffer if you hit a wheel in a hole. A large proportion of malfunctions detected during operation of the machine are associated with them, so the supports need to be repaired first. If you doubt their serviceability, replace them.
• Springs, struts: they are directly affected if you hit a wheel in a hole, so checking them and regularly diagnosing them is very important.
• Numerous silent blocks (depending on the suspension design, their number and types may vary). Pay close attention to the silent blocks of the front McPherson suspension arms.
• Stabilizers, their struts, silent blocks - they can easily break if you get your wheel into a hole.
• Axle shafts, CV joints that can bend, fall out, or become inoperable. If they are damaged after you hit a hole in the road with your wheel, further driving of the car will be impossible.

It is impossible to carry out a high-quality check of all components and parts of the car on your own. If you still decide to cope on your own, then you need a garage box that has an inspection hole to examine in detail the condition of the car’s chassis. If a breakdown occurs on the road, we advise you to have the chassis checked at a car service center as soon as possible. After this, it will become clear whether you can continue driving further or not.

Who to sue?

You can find out who is responsible for the condition of the roads in the area where you hit the pothole from the traffic police officers who will arrive at the scene of the traffic accident. To file a lawsuit, the driver needs to find out the details of the responsible organization (actual and legal addresses, full name of the organization, position and full name of the competent person, contact information).

In addition, according to Article 12.34 of the Code of Administrative Offenses, a fine in the amount of 2 to 3 thousand rubles will be issued to the organization’s address (in the name of employees who are engaged in road surface repairs), and in the amount of 300,000 rubles (for legal entities of the road organization) .