Motorist Waits 3 Years For City To Pay For Pothole-Related Damages
(CBS) -- You damage your car hitting a pothole. And you don't wait a few months for reimbursement from the city – but years.
That's one man's story. CBS 2's Suzanne Le Mignot reports.
Back in February, Landon Harper spoke to CBS 2's Dave Savini after he filed a claim with the city fall 2011 for $926.80 after hitting a pothole. He split both front tires in half.
Nine months after that interview, Harper now holds a check for what the city calls a settlement payment. The amount: $463.40.
"It's better than nothing. I'm just going to take it, put it in the bank and watch out for potholes," he says. "It's nice to get something back, but it took way too long."
Why did it take so long? It's been a record year for pothole claims.
So far in 2014, the City Clerk's Office has received 5,179 claims. That is more than double the number of claims received in the four previous years combined.
Meantime, the city's pothole patching program continues. A record 835,000 potholes have been filled this year, that's about 200,000 more than last year, when 630,000 were filled.
A spokesperson for the Chicago Department of Transportation says they could fill as many as 900,000 potholes by the end of this year.