B.C. man believes province was negligent for failing to fix pothole that damaged his BMW

Eric Luo shows where the pothole damaged his BMW's alignment. The vehicle has since been repaired. (CTV News)

Junsheng Luo feels like he’s been “travelling in the darkness” since his two-year-old BMW suffered $1,000 worth of damage from a pothole on Knight Street in Richmond back in May.

The vehicle has been repaired, but Luo – who also goes by the name Eric – has struggled to get compensation from the government responsible for maintaining the road, which he feels he deserves.

In B.C., governments are generally not responsible for paying members of the public whose property is damaged by government infrastructure, unless the government in question was negligent in causing the damage.

Luo says he understands this, and believes his case qualifies for compensation. He’s also frustrated by what he sees as a lack of accountability on the part of the province.

‘Passing the ball’

In the days after the incident, Luo contacted the Ministry of Transportation and Transit and filed a claim for compensation using the form available on the ministry’s website.

He says the ministry staff he spoke to referred him to the City of Richmond, saying the stretch of road in question was municipally managed.

A claim he made at the municipal level was denied, with the city’s insurer saying it had “confirmed” that the location is a provincial responsibility.

The pothole itself has long since been repaired, though when he spoke to CTV News last weekend, Luo was not sure by whom.

“Nobody is telling me who fixed it,” he said at the time. “I mean, the people or the party who fixed it should have the responsibility to me to help me compensate this claim.”

In a statement to CTV News this week, the ministry acknowledged that it is responsible for maintaining the stretch of Knight Street that interchanges with and passes under Highway 91, where the pothole was located.

Luo said in an email Friday that he feels this “passing the ball” between the ministry and the city led to unnecessary delays and reflects poorly on the ministry’s handling of public concerns.

“At minimum, B.C. Highway owes me, as a taxpayer and driver, an apology,” he wrote.

Negligence

According to the ministry, three different agencies are responsible for Knight Street in Richmond. Some parts of the road are maintained by TransLink, others by the city, and others by the province.

The ministry referred CTV News to the “Highway Related Claims” section of the provincial government website, which says the ministry may pay for damage caused by things like potholes, but only if there is proof of negligence on the part of the ministry or its contractors.

“If there was no negligence, the claim is not payable,” the page reads.

It also notes that provincial highway maintenance contracts require the contracted companies to meet “specific standards and response times” depending on the classification of the roadway in question.

“Once a deficiency, such as a pothole, has been detected, contractors must make the necessary repairs within those required response times,” the page reads.

Luo says he spoke to an operations manager for Mainroad Lower Mainland Contracting – the provincial highway maintenance contractor – who said he knew exactly where the pothole was.

“This indicates that the issue had been known for some time, yet no action was taken until after my incident, which suggests a failure in maintenance responsibilities,” Luo said in his email.

He expressed a similar sentiment in his interview, before he knew which level of government was responsible for maintaining the road.

“(It’s) very frustrating,” Luo said, at the time. “This (pothole) is not a thing that I’m the first person to find it. This is a problem that existed for a time that they have already been aware of.”

Luo says his existing claim for compensation from the province should be considered a claim of negligence, and he says he plans to continue to press the issue until he gets the money he feels he deserves.