Wichita woman's car undrivable after hitting an overturned manhole cover | Community | kake.com

Car damaged by manhole cover

WICHITA, Kan. (KAKE) - A Wichita woman says a manhole cover in south Wichita caused extensive damage to her car, making it undrivable.

“Bring attention to it, awareness to it that way, they can work on getting it fixed,” said Cassandra Townson, whose car was damaged by the manhole cover.

Cassandra Townson’s car is undrivable after she says she hit an overturned manhole on the 3800 block of South Seneca January 4.

“I mean my whole car went up some and kinda threw me over, and so I ended up pulling over into the median and realized that you know it was way worse than, you know, what I thought originally,” explained Townson.

Townson’s airbags were deployed during her run in with the manhole, but that is not the only damage.

“It ripped off what I believe is the axle mount of my car, the exhaust is dented up pretty bad, and the whole undercarriage is scraped up and cut up and torn up down there,” said Townson.

Now she is trying to figure out next steps, and how to prevent this from happening to others.

“Originally I wasn’t going to do anything really too much about it and then this last Friday as I was heading to work again, the same manhole was open and it had taken out two other vehicles. They both just had flat tires, no more big damage that I’m aware of,” said Townson.

Townson did file a police report and police say there will be no follow up.

There is a ‘claims for damage’ form on the city of Wichita’s website, (or you can click here) where folks who believe the city is at fault for damages to property or persons can try to get reimbursed for situations like this.

“I think it's important to let the city know, irrespective of a claim, let them know to ensure it does not happen again because manhole covers can be dangerous,” said Richard James, of DeVaughn James Injury Lawyers.

If you see an overturned manhole cover or any other public street related issue, fill out a ‘report an issue’ form by clicking here.

The city says most potholes that are reported are filled within 24 hours.

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