‘Hole’ lotta damage
Charlottetown man upset after pothole causes more than $800 in damage to car
It was likely the most expensive cup of coffee John Cullen will ever pay for.
Cullen, of Charlottetown, is raising concerns over businesses’ responsibilities in maintaining their parking lots and says a pothole an the Sherwood Business Centre left his car in need of more than $800 worth of repairs to its suspension.
Cullen said he and a friend were getting a coffee Saturday morning at Tim Hortons and were pulling out of the parking lot by the mall when he hit the large pothole.
“We were coming around and ‘bang’,” said Cullen. “There was water in the hole so it wasn’t even that visible until we were into it.”
Cullen said his vehicle, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, previously only needed new brake pads to pass an upcoming inspection.
After checking with a mechanic on Monday and realizing he now needed more work, Cullen called the business centre and was told he should go through his insurance.
Cullen said he would have been satisfied if the company had agreed to pay for part of the damages and noted the mall’s parking lot is often a bad spot for potholes.
“And I agree that potholes pop up everywhere, but they had plenty of time to deal with this, even if they just put gravel in,” said Cullen, whose frustration only grew when he noticed work crews out Tuesday morning filling in all of the parking lot’s potholes. “(I was) very pissed. I went home and phoned them and said ‘you aren’t admitting to it, yet you’ve got pavement crews filling in all the holes today, what’s this about?’… I don’t see why my insurance company should foot the bill and then have my insurance payments go up because they weren’t maintaining their parking lot.”
Cullen said, at the very least, companies should be required to put up signs warning of bad potholes with a disclaimer the driver is responsible for damages.
While being interviewed by The Guardian in the parking lot, another driver bottomed out her car on a sunk-in catch basin on the St. Peters Road crosswalk while pulling into the parking lot. The driver, Dianne Gallant stopped to check underneath her car for any damages and agreed with Cullen’s idea that signage should be required at bad potholes within the city.