Calgary driver claims pothole cost him $1000

With spring finally upon us, it marks the start of pothole season in Calgary, and one driver says a pothole cost him almost $1,000 dollars.

The warmer temperatures in the city are melting all the snow on the roads, revealing hundreds of potholes across the city.

Cory Gordon and his wife, residents of the southeast community of Copperfield, were driving Southbound on Deerfoot Trail when they got the surprise of their life.

“Within 30 seconds of taking off from the light, I definitely hit a pothole, and I knew instantly something was wrong,” Gordon told CityNews.

“You could just tell the car lurched, and then I knew that there was definitely something wrong. So we pulled into the Walmart … at 130th and got out, and sure enough, both tires were flat.”

“It really is frustrating, and it’s expensive. I was probably not the only person that hit that and had a tire pop. It happens all over the city.”

The car of a driver that hit a pothole, which damaged multiple tires. (Courtesy of Cory Gordon)

Gordon and his wife were stranded on the road in the dark when a friend, who works at a tire shop, came to their rescue.

However, he says not everyone is so lucky.

“My tires are expensive, and right now, with the cost of things. I mean, people don’t have an extra … $350 to over $1,000 with your tow bill,” Gordon said.

“I mean, people don’t have that kicking around, right? So, out of pocket, I was $985, and that’s without a tow bill, mind you.”

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Potholes don’t pop up overnight. For instance, if people look at a section of Inglewood on Google Maps in previous years, the road condition has deteriorated over time. Now, there is a large pothole.

The City of Calgary says the province does pothole maintenance on highways while city workers maintain roads within Calgary. And this year, the city is behind.

“They’re just over 1,100 pothole requests since the start of the year, 650 of those are from March alone. I believe last year, by the end of March, we filled nearly 3,000 potholes,” said Chris McGeachy, a spokesperson with the City of Calgary.

“We haven’t filled this many this year, and that’s just because there’s been more snow on the ground. There’s been more days with snow on the ground, but we anticipate as this weather warms up, our crews will be able to attend to these potholes. We just thank people for reporting them as they see them.”

Read More: Calgary city repairs hundreds of potholes on streets

The city has a dedicated page for citizens to report new potholes and check the status of the reported ones.

Gordon says he has returned to the pothole, took photographs and initiated a claim with Carmacks to get the $1,000 back in his pocket.