CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — You pay to keep the roads safe and well maintained, but the next time you hit a pothole you might consider alerting the City of Charlotte or North Carolina Department of Transportation.
After all, our review of pothole claims found those government agencies rarely pay drivers for damage to their cars, in large part because the potholes go unreported.
Consider Jeff Mundy the exception.
He's one of more than 200 drivers who has filed pothole claims with the city of Charlotte in recent years, but one of just three people in all of 2018 who won their claims with the city.
Records show only about five percent of people who file pothole damage claims collect. The city's paid out $10,600 since 2016 to 11 people, according to public records.
"I didn't want to pay out of pocket. I wanted somebody else to be responsible for it," Mundy said. "It was a headache, to be honest."
As unlucky as he was to hit the pothole on North Sharon Amity Road last March in the first place, Mundy lucked out in the fact someone else reported it and the city failed to fix it in a timely manner.
"Someone had reported it about three weeks earlier," he said. "It did not get fixed three weeks earlier."
In order for the city to pay for a pothole claim, it all comes down to timing.
"The city would have to have knowledge (prior notice) that the pothole exists and failed to fix it in a timely manner," a spokesperson said. "Timely manner can vary due to unavoidable situations such as weather conditions and manpower."
The collection process is even more challenging with the North Carolina Department of Transportation. NCDOT records showed of the 352 reported potholes in 2018, the state paid for only four of them with 28 others still pending. That's the equivalent of just one percent of all pothole claims.
That's why it's especially important for people to report potholes when they see them.
"We have 80,000 miles plus of roads to maintain in the state and our eyes aren't on every road at all times," NCDOT Communications Officer Jen Thompson said. "It may not be something on the forefront of our minds, but we really do appreciate when folks make that effort and take that time to do so."
It won't just help crews know where to make repairs, it could help the next person, not just avoid the pothole, but get paid if they drive over it.
Both Charlotte and NCDOT have websites dedicated to reporting potholes. But the city has an even easier way to report potholes.
"Residents who wish to report a pothole are encouraged to call 311," a spokesperson said. "Charlotte Department of Transportation crews respond to all potholes within three hours. Emergency potholes are addressed immediately.
"Potholes determined to be non-emergency are addressed within five days. Most potholes are non-emergency and are repaired within the five-day response window," the spokesperson added.
The South Carolina Department of Transportation doesn't distinguish its claims based on type, so we weren't able to find out how many pothole claims the state has paid.
However, a spokesperson said of the 2,120 damage claims filed in 2018, SCDOT paid for 506 of those claims totaling $257,733.