JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Capital city potholes have wreaked havoc on cars for years, and drivers are paying the price.
Most people who hit a pothole are able to keep driving like nothing ever happened, but for the not-so-lucky people, the only pothole they care about moves from the road; to their wallets.
According to Rick Herring and Landon Perkins of Bullock’s Auto Repair, fixing pothole damage isn’t cheap. In fact, it can sometimes cost you upwards of thousands of dollars.
Although it brings business for them, Rick Herring and Landon Perkins know how expensive this can be for customers.
“We see rim damage, we see suspension damage. You know, from a couple of hundred dollars for repairs like an alignment may be a single piece up to a couple of thousand dollars for body damage. It gets pretty expensive,” Herring said.
Many potholes in Jackson aren’t just located on low-speed limit roads. They can be found on highways and interstates which pose a massive safety risk for drivers.
“It can be pretty dangerous,” Herring said. If you hit a pothole at highway speeds, again not knowing how deep it is, it can cause a loss of control, or the faster you’re going the more severe the damage to the vehicle can be. It can create problems where it causes accidents, injury, and loss of life.”
The two offered tips to not only keep you safer when encountering pothole-littered roads but tips that will save you money.
“The best advice is just to drive slow, pay attention to what’s around you, and take care of the basic maintenance on your car, your tires, rotations, inflation pressure, and oil changes. Regular inspections will help keep some of that at bay. It’s a heck of a lot cheaper to maintain it than to fix it once it breaks. Absolutely. And safer.”
Herring says one of his mechanics hit a pothole Tuesday night while it was raining. Wednesday, he had to fork over several hundred dollars for a new tire.
Robert Graham with the Hinds County Board of Supervisors says the board has been working to fast-track the process of not only just repairing potholes but repaving entire broken roads.
“If you’ve had damage from a pothole inside the city, and have the proper documentation, you can actually file a claim with the City of Jackson’s Risk Management Division to receive compensation for your vehicle repairs,” he said.
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