Man claims road work damaged his car

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — This season’s heavy rains have caused many problems across the area and one man said they’ve cost him a lot of money.

Larry Ellis filed a claim with the Department of Transportation after his car suffered from $1500 in damages after driving through a road work area. Weeks after the heavy rains in October Ellis says he was driving through the intersection of Kerr Avenue and Emerson Road when the road work area damaged the bottom of his car, destroying his gas tank.

During the storm, the area near that intersection washed out and the DOT came out to fix it, but Ellis says weeks later the temporary gravel repair had worn away leaving a five inch deep dip in the road.

“I think they should reconsider what they were talking about and really go out there and look. I don’t think they even looked at what they were doing.”

Ellis says the incident happened weeks after the storms and the DOT failed to properly fix the road.

A DOT spokesman said during that time, Ellis was the only person who filed a complaint. We recently heard from a spokesperson at the Attorney General’s Office. She said a person must prove negligence to be compensated, and in this case, the DOT posted a sign warning about the rough road.