They are the potholes that eat Ohio.

The one that chewed up half a highway ramp in Akron last month bent the wheel on Kaleigh
Pisani’s Mitsubishi Eclipse, buckled the hood and broke both headlights. The estimated damage from
the one shop that didn’t declare the car a total loss: $2,325.09.

Cassy Bradley’s Chrysler Aspen needs more than $1,000 worth of work after she hit a pothole on
I-71 near Orient two weeks ago. The impact was so great that she thought she had hit something. The
pothole ruined a wheel rim and damaged a tire-pressure sensor.

State transportation officials face more than $100,000 in damage claims from drivers who’ve had
similar experiences since January on Ohio highways. There have been 114 claims this year.

Two, totaling $517, were submitted by Alan Russell, whose tires were damaged after he hit
potholes in November and February on two stretches of I-270.

“I wasn’t going to make a claim, but after the second … it’s just kind of frustrating,” he
said.

The Ohio Department of Transportation has spent about $41,400 on almost 500 tons of asphalt this
winter to patch potholes in central Ohio. That’s less than the amount spent during the same stretch
of winter last year.

Statewide, the agency paid nearly $500,000 from 2007 through 2010 for the pothole damage that
motorists reported. The Ohio Court of Claims handles the cases, and this is the time of year when
things get busy.

Thirty of the pending claims – totaling more than $22,000 – were made in the first 10 days of
March alone. The state hasn’t paid out money yet; it has 60 days to respond.

Pisani is seeking more than $2,300 in damage and a refund of the $25 fee she had to pay to file
a claim. She said the pothole she hit on a ramp between I-76 and I-77 was unavoidably large and
undetectable in the dark.

“It made this horrible

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