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Potholes: What You Haven't Thought About

April 22nd, 2014  |  Auto Insurance

Article By: Scott Marshall
Scott Marshall is Director of Training for Young Drivers of Canada.  He was a judge on the first 3 seasons of Canada’s Worst Driver on Discovery Network. Scott started writing columns on driving for his community paper since 2005.  Since then his columns have been printed in several publications including newspaper, magazines and various web-sites. You can visit his own blog at http://safedriving.wordpress.com.


It often seems when spring arrives and the snow disappears that drivers are faced with other problems – potholes. The city that I live in seems to have a great number of potholes each spring, as most communities do, but is there anything we as drivers can do to avoid the wrath of potholes?

I think the first thing drivers need to realize is what vehicle damage can occur just by driving through a deep pothole. Punctured tires, bent rims and suspension damage are the main vehicle problems that can occur just by driving into a pothole. The other issue could be a loss of vehicle control by the driver. Any of these issues should give any driver concern. So, how do you recognize these dangerous potholes? A number of ways actually.

The easiest way to identify the pothole during daylight hours is to look ahead of your path by at least 12 to 15 seconds. If you spot a pothole, or anything that may resemble a pothole, reduce speed and attempt to drive around the pothole so your wheels don’t enter it. The added problems happen if the pothole is full of water. The added water across the road hides the actual pothole. If you spot a large amount of water across the road, do the same thing as if you spotted the pothole and avoid driving through it with your tires.

Remember how beautiful the autumn is with the changing of the leaves? Well, those beautiful leaves can also fill up a pothole. A pile of leaves could very well have a pothole hidden underneath it. Just like when the road had a large puddle, avoid the pile of leaves as much as possible.

I know what you’re thinking; how can you go around a pothole when traffic is all around you. The best suggestions I have is to look well ahead of you to see what the traffic pattern is doing. If many vehicles driving in the same lane as you are making a slight swerving motion with their vehicle, chances are it was a pothole they were avoiding. No need to wait until you actually see the pothole before you do something. No need to be swerving all over the place. Make a controlled move now.

The next thing you should do is to always drive next to open space. Avoid having another vehicle stay directly beside your vehicle as you travel along the multiple lane roads. This staggered positioning will give you the room to the side of your vehicle to make that slight move to avoid the crater in the road. If another vehicle moves beside your vehicle, adjust speed, either quicker or slower to allow the space to happen again.

So as you see, there are things you can do to help protect your vehicle and yourself from those nasty potholes. All you have to do is try it.

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