# Can I sue the township, city, county or state for road damage to my car? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 25, 2014, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-sue-the-township-city-county-or-state-for-road-damage-to-my-car/682174 "2014-02-25T00:11:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-sue-the-township-city-county-or-state-for-road-damage-to-my-car/682174/22 "2015-01-22T21:50:43Z")
We used to run into this all the time in Winnipeg - the city’s response back was usually along the lines of “You were driving too fast for the road conditions.” ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-sue-the-township-city-county-or-state-for-road-damage-to-my-car/682174/25 "2015-02-11T22:58:18Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > It’s the politicians and bureaucrats fault. > > Most governments are set up to run on annual budgets, even for capital expenditures. They don’t think about the overall lifetime costs of a highway. They think about the annual budget. So if the road construction for a best in class road costs $50MM, but “Fly-by-Night” road construction company might be willing to charge $25MM to build the same road for significantly less quality construction techniques and materials, the government will normally pick the lowest bid, even if the annual maintenance costs in the future will be more…because that’s the problem of the politicians that win the next term. Definitely a huge part of the problem. I’ve also heard that part of Michigan’s problem is that the weight limit for trucks is too high. Heavier trucks, more wear and tear on roads. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-sue-the-township-city-county-or-state-for-road-damage-to-my-car/682174/26 "2015-02-12T00:47:46Z")
I keep wondering if things will come to a head in Portland at some point. There are over 600 miles of unpaved streets _in the city_. Some of them look exactly like the roads in Bamako, Mali which had washouts that were the size of my Toyota Corolla (truthfully). The city has repeated time and again that for one reason or another, they will not pave them. One of the goofiest reasons for some of them is that when the city annexed a part of the city, the streets were not properly put in prior to the acquisition, and therefore the property owners and not the city of Portland are responsible for fixing them. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-sue-the-township-city-county-or-state-for-road-damage-to-my-car/682174/27 "2015-02-12T02:25:18Z")
If one is going to elect corrupt politicians, it would make better sense to elect efficient corrupt politicians. Those whose ‘friends’ have superior road-building skills. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-sue-the-township-city-county-or-state-for-road-damage-to-my-car/682174/28 "2015-02-12T02:52:57Z")
Here’s a bit of trivia re. the Interstate: The Federal Govt (manna from heaven) paid for 90% of the construction. The States saw that and signed up (a bunch of low-income housing got paved over) for pavement everywhere. The feds pay for only 50% of maintenance. The Interstates have a bunch of specifications - you may have noticed that they are NOT made of asphalt (“bitum”) - and those specs are expensive. I-80 from Sacramento to Davis was a nightmare (and the rest of the way to SF was not much better) - they are now replacing the section immediately west of Sacto - this is heavy-duty concrete construction. IIRC, the difference between asphalt and concrete was a factor of at least 10x. When PA is willing to pay for real roads (which are NEVER bitum), you will get real roads. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-i-sue-the-township-city-county-or-state-for-road-damage-to-my-car/682174.md?page=1)