Ryan Johnson's Experience with Indianapolis Potholes

I take Fall Creek every day on my way to the office from the northeast side of town. When you travel the same piece of road up to ten times a week you notice little changes. One of the changes I noticed in the winter months of 2022 was the ever-accumulating amount of hubcaps lining the road near Fall Creek and E 32nd street. I never stopped to make an official count, but my guess is there were somewhere between fifteen and thirty hubcaps lying just off the road.

Any reader from central Indiana will know immediately the cause of this phenomenon. There was a large pothole that, in rush hour traffic, was simply unavoidable right at this intersection. As a result of being a veteran of this stretch of road, I knew exactly what lane to be in as I approached this seemingly bottomless hole in the road. Unfortunately, this wasn’t the case for every morning commuter.  

This experience certainly isn’t unique to my fellow Fall Creek travelers. One Indianapolis couple in a nearby part of town noticed the same thing in their own yard. They dubbed their yard, “hubcap cemetery.” https://www.wrtv.com/news/local-news/indianapolis/indy-couples-yard-becomes-hubcap-cemetery-because-of-potholes-near-their-home  

We all know that sinking feeling that overtakes you just in that split second before the front end of your vehicle tips into the abyss of the missing asphalt and that desperate internal plea you make in the following seconds as you hope against hope that you did not just blow a tire…or worse. 

If, however, your plea was not answered and your vehicle does suffer disabling damage there may be help from the city of Indianapolis. Not only has an “unprecedented $10 million dollars been given to the DPW this year to address the [pothole] problem,” it is also possible to submit a request to the city to compensate you for the property damage to your vehicle.  https://indytoday.6amcity.com/your-guide-to-potholes-indianapolis-in. You will need to file a tort claim with the city.

Tort claims are necessary in Indiana any time a governmental agency of any type is responsible for damages. If you fail to file a tort claim within the prescribed time, your claim will be automatically denied. https://www.indy.gov/activity/file-a-tort-claim. So this is something you need to do as soon as possible to preserve any chance of making a recovery. 

We are now in March and the days are getting longer and warmer. But, the winter months have scarred the streets, and all the sunshine in the world won’t fix that hole. So stay aware out there and drive safe.