A Lemon Grove woman recently sustained serious injuries after hitting a pothole on her bicycle. She says she was riding her bike near Dartmoor Drive in late May as cars began to pass her. She looked backward to make sure she had a clear path, but did not anticipate the pothole in her path and flipped her bike. She chipped teeth and broke her ribs in the fall.
The pot hole was one of many on the road, so she is unsure which one was the one that caused her injuries. It has been nearly a month since she was hurt and she says that the medical bills are piling up, not to mention the lost income from being out of work.
The road where the accident happened sits right between the cities of San Diego and Lemon Grove, so she is not currently aware of which city might be responsible for maintenance on the road.
Pothole-related injuries fall under the umbrella of the legal theory known as premises liability. Property owners have a duty of care to visitors to provide for the safety of visitors to the property. When that duty of care is breached and the breach results in someone’s injury, that person can seek legal recourse against the property owner. Since public roads are the domain of government, the government would be the party responsible for a pothole-related injury if negligence can be proven.