Drove over a metal bracket for holding construction signs

I'm not a lawyer, but in any case it seams that you are dealing with 2 subjects here, the city you live in and Mother Nature. I doubt very seriously that the city is going to pay for anything that happened like you said, reason being, Mother Nature took over and that is something that we can't control. Good luck to you either way, but that's the way that I see it.

 

Just call the city, and see what they can do to help. I'm sure that's much better than having it on your mind when you suck it up fixing it out of your pocket, without contacting the city.

 

Contact the city, but don't let them talk you down. Things like this can be very dangerous, possibly fatal. They're lucky all that happened is some minor damage to your car.

 

I don't think you need to mention the "mother nature" part, that should be dealt with by the workers, like something to hold the sign down, so stuff like this doesn't happen. Good luck either way, hopefully they don't beetch out.

 

Sandbags, baby. Sandbags.

 

And I thought that I was the only one?

A long time ago.. in my 1997 Toyota Camry, I ran over some metal thing, which may have been left over from a construction zone, or maybe it fell of a truck...

I was switching lanes, trying to avoid it with my front right tire, but couldn't avoid running over it with my front left tire.

The result: the metal object had scraped the underbelly of my car, and my front left (driver's side) door was unhinged, but still stayed in place.

At that time, I could barely open the door to get in and out.. but I got it "repaired" so that I was able to open and close the door without any problems. But it still didn't fit into the gap correctly. After that incident, I would always get strangers in the DC area (driving past or on foot), telling me that my door wasn't shut properly!

I did take it to a repair shop, and paid for it myself... didn't know who else would cover it... the county? the insurance company?

 

You make the city pay for it, if they put something on the side of the road it has to be properly put there to withstand wind etc, they created the hazard by not mounting the sign properly and therefore they are responsible for the repair to your vehicle.

 

They responded so fast because they did not want you to sue for the trauma and anxiety that you are now feeling EVERY time you drive at night... and how this limited your ability to function like everybody else due to the anxiety you feel every time you try to go out after dark now that this happened to you... (in other words they don't want you to sue for their screw up)

 

Nothing personal, but you shouldn't "all of a sudden" feel anxiety because somebody told you to. There's a reason our insurance rates go up and that's because people suddenly come up with symptoms when they talk to the accident/injury lawyers.

Like you've already done, contact the city - specifically the risk management department if they have one. Also, call the police and file an accident report when it occurs and you are on-scene so they can document the conditions. I'm glad nobody was injured and hope everything turns out ok.

Also, Kravchak, nothing personal towards you or your comments.

 

Until someone else, driving in the wind, and in the rain, hits the same sign, breaking it loose from the sand bags, and then you come along....

If it's like here, you have no recourse unless you can PROVE the city/county/state KNEW that particular sign was down AND was creating a danger...

We have had lawsuits where the constant rain drains down the dirt on the side of a road on a hill, creating nice gullys you don't want to drive off the road into.
About 20 years ago there was a fatal involving this, A friend asked me to take pictures immediately, I drove out and did, and the next day the state had a road grader out there 'fixing' it.
The story was a guy had his right-side wheels drop down into this gully (washout) that was about a foot deep, he jerked back onto the road, across it, and into the oncoming path of a semi. He died, it turns out the state had a work order to fix this from a month or two prior, and never did. I think his family got around 1.5 mill.