Potholes and Cowards

Exhibit "1" - Do you recognize this writing?

Welcome

Pothole located at 93rd St. and Colvin Blvd.

The Pothole Problems of Niagara Falls, NY.

Welcome to spring in Niagara Falls. Sadly along with spring comes pothole season and this year according to many residents it is the worst in memory. Here at the Accardo Agency we have been busy assisting clients in record numbers with filling out auto claims relating to damage they have sustained due to the city's numerous and significant potholes.

As you likely are aware driving into a pothole can do substantial and costly damage to your automobile and is truly a public safety issue as motorists often swerve to avoid hitting them. As one young woman found out, it cost her $1,000 for a gallon of milk. Yes a simple trip to the store could cost you big money in damages to your automobile if you hit a pothole and it wasn't previously reported to the city.

As a service to our clients and fellow taxpayers in our city we have launched NiagaraFallsPotholes.com. This website is a resource for news relating to the city's pothole problems and what is being done to correct them. It is also available to you to post your personal experiences with potholes within Niagara Falls and even add photos of potholes.

This is NOT AN OFFICIAL CITY SITE. Please feel free to leave what ever comments you would like. Tells us how you feel after you hit a pothole, not what you say!

Many people are now planning their drive through Niagara Falls such that they avoid the most heavily affected including the main roads. Unfortunately many believe a consequence of this practice is greatly increased traffic using neigborhood side-streets increasing wear and tear to those streets, increased noise to residents, and compromising the safety of our children. The information you leave here will hopefully help correct the many problems associated with potholes.

As reported in the Niagara Gazette, the city will receive $3.6 million from the Obama stimulus package. It is commonly believed that this amount of money won't come close to solving the pothole problem as most of the streets in the city need total reconstruction. Year after year the problem gets worse. We need our city leaders to look at this situation as a crisis, a public safety and quality-of-life issue, and not just a problem that the "POTHOLE KILLER" will solve.

What can you do to help?

It is not commonly known that if the City of Niagara Falls is put on notice of the existence of a pothole and a driver subsequently sustains damage as a result of the pothole having not been repaired in a reasonable length of time, the city may be liable to the motorist for damages. A claim cannot be successfully filed against the city in situations where the city was not formally notified of the existence of a specific pothole, which means you cannot collect any damages from the city if your car needs repairs after hitting a pothole that wasn't reported. To put the city on notice of the existence of a pothole you may call the city at 286-4940 or 286-4840 or preferably visit http://www.egovlink.com/niagarafalls/action.asp?actionid=3171 to submit an online report and get an email confirmation of your notification to the city.

Please leave your comments and opinions here at http://www.niagarafallspotholes.com/. You may email pictures of your favorite pothole(s) to admin@niagarafallspotholes.com. Make sure you include an address or location of the pothole. Although this is not an offfical city of Niagara falls website I'm confident that city leaders will visit.

Regards,

The Accardo Agency