OKC May Foot The Bill For Pothole-Induced Car Damage

There is a costly downside to all the rain -- potholes.

They're popping up on busy streets around the metro, but it turns out the city may be forced to foot the bill for some car damage.

Dealerships and repair shops all across the metro are repairing cars after people either decided to drive into high water or accidentally hit a pothole.

There may be more potholes than city crews can repair right now, but that's not the only thing that may need to be fixed. If you hit a pothole hard enough, so will your vehicle.

"You've got electronic components, your steering, suspension, and all of this is subject to damage along with the undercarriage, too," Daniel Parker of Bob Moore Infiniti said.

Road craters are more than potholes. They can literally be money pits.

"The impact is hard enough to actually blow out the side wall. Luckily on this vehicle it has run flat tires. So you're actually able to to drive a short distance to a safe location," Parker said. "Unfortunately on this vehicle, too, it actually bent the wheel."

There have been a lot of Oklahomans who were blindsided by these roadside bombs, but under the right circumstances, you can be reimbursed by the city for damages.

"Most people don't know that," City of Oklahoma City spokeswoman Tina Hughes said.

On the City of Oklahoma City's website there is a form you can fill out, and city officials say so far they've paid about half of the claims submitted.

"We will take the location and the date that you gave to us, and we will check with the streets department and with the action center who receives those types of calls to see if we had notice that that pothole was there in enough time to fix before you hit it," Hughes said.

You'll need to provide estimates or receipts and a copy of you car title to present along with that claim form.

View the claim form.