Have you survived a pothole incident?

I just did, the kind of stuff you see in movies happened to me in real life today!

So on my way back to Abuja today, I ran into one of the numerous potholes between Calabar and Ugep

and the car literally jumped off the road

Got into the bush

drove for a while there

a boy and a girl saw what was coming and ran for their dear lives

seconds later

the vehicle jumped back on the road

I continued my journey as if nothing happened

I then noticed though that the alignment was terribly off

By the time I got to itigidi, I noticed that left rear tire had a puncture

By the time I got to Enugu to try to do the alignment, I noticed I had cracked the oil pan but that it would not leak if the vehicle was on

it would only leak if it was off

I topped up the oil

I bought like 5 litres of oil extra and used it all by the time I got to Abuja

the engine oil warning light never came on

but temperatures would rise in hold ups, never reaching the max though

and fall as soon as I got moving again

I also noticed a new crack in the windshield

Has anyone been this fortunate? Share your story!

Or where you unfortunate?

By the way, did you know that low oil level can cause overheat?

Low oil level: A vehicle that’s low on oil tends to overheat because the oil removes from 75 to 80 percent of the “waste heat” in your engine (in addition to doing its other job of cushioning the moving engine parts).

If you’re one quart low in oil and your vehicle holds five quarts, the oil will carry away 20 percent less heat than it should.

source: http://www.dummies.com/home-garden/car-repair/heating-cooling-system/how-to-troubleshoot-an-overheating-engine/

How did you resist the urge to immediately stop and inspect?
Riding beside my elder brother along Choba road to Rumuokoro roundabout (Bayelsa to PH road) years ago, he ran into a pothole on high speed in the dark. The incident actually dented the non-alloy rim. Car rode rough until rim was replaced.

In 2007, we were going from Abuja to Makurdi, and then to Ph. Mehn, between Oturkpo and Obollo Afor, I was doing like 130km/hr, never knew that road was very bad then. Na so I jumped into a big pothole, the car flew up for like 3seconds, and we all thought we were going to die.

In fact, I can't even remembered how i managed to come back to the road, drove for some time and stopped. Checked everything and only the rim was bent, which we changed at obollo afor.

We thank God

Advice: On high speed (any speed greater than 120km/hr)and you suddenly see a pothole, do not try to slow down, the consequences of slowing down is greater than jumping it with that speed.

Yes @ Between St Agnes Bus stop to Waec bus stop, Yaba .. 3 manhole were opened and there was no warning sign.. Same on The bridge that leads to VI from Costain.. I almost entered 2 opened manhole. The worst part of it is that i was riding bike then and that was my first time @ the work .. I would have been dead by now if i could manage to hit the hole.. Thank God .. I am alive and i have stopped working as the fvvcking dispatch rider that want to take my life

CaptainBomb:
Yes @ Between St Agnes Bus stop to Waec bus top.. 3 manhole were open and there was no warning sign

I did experience same, jumped into a bus in front of St. Dominics under 2 minutes ride l thanked God l was not recuperating from a surgery because the impact was bone-shaking!

yeah and God too control

If I see see potholes when driving, I will park and fill it with sands

Pavore9:


I did experience same, jumped into a bus in front of St. Dominics under 2 minutes ride l thanked God l was not recuperating from a surgery because the impact was bone-shaking!

ahhhhh!!!!!

Last week, Vehicle RX300 AWD,
Driving from Lagos to Abuja.
Mehn not funny.
Saw a truck coming and a useless Commercial bus driver trying to over take me withing very close range of the truck. Had to quickly jump into down the road to save the life of all the passengers on board that bus.

Two lower control arms bent, two front shocks collapse, brake servo became stuck. And alignment went haywire.

Mine was in my dream, was driving a Rolls Royce , only to run into this ditch suddenly and I woke up.....somebody shout hallelujah!

john4reala:
If I see see potholes when driving, I will park and fill it with sands

Yeah right!

john4reala:
If I see see potholes when driving, I will park and fill it with sands

With which sand?

kingreign:


Last week, Vehicle RX300 AWD,
Driving from Lagos to Abuja.
Mehn not funny.
Saw a truck coming and a useless Commercial bus driver trying to over take me withing very close range of the truck. Had to quickly jump into down the road to save the life of all the passengers on board that bus.

Two lower control arms bent, two front shocks collapse, brake servo became stuck. And alignment went haywire.

Omo

Along lagos ibadan express way, my front and back tire busted after ramming into a pothole. It was around 10pm.
I call it original gobe.

I was travelling from Ibadan to Ife...somewhere around gbongan....i was driving around 120 -130 km per hour. Next thing i saw in front of me was a huge pothole, before i could say Jack, i was airborne. The car landed after about 2 to 3 seconds in the air, slammed itself back on the road and bounced like twice. I parked for 30 minute to calm myself as i thought that was the end of my life. Fortunatley for me, it was a volkswagen jetta(German). The car just drove normally after that with zero issues.

Ifo Ogun state port holes. When u r driving from Tole gate Sango to Ifo If u r used to ifo ogun state

You will be ok with your driving with d port holes but there is a dude that we r gingering together from Sango if i passed him he will pass me. But i understood every port hiles on d road but he is not.maybe he has something to do along that route

Na him we dey cruise dey go

At first i knew d guy would crash

Plenty.

2011. Most expensive. Peugeot 207. Kaiama road (Kwara state) was with my heavily pregnant wife when I ran into a pothole. We were traveling from Lag and I was on like maybe 70km/hr because the road was untarred but that part was smooth. Just out of nowhere a pothole appeared! I ran into it and the car couldn't hold anymore. There was sand everywhere and anywhere I turned the steering it oversteered. Ended up in a yam farm after clearing heaps and stopped by a tree. Brand new car almost totalled. Thank God we came out unscathed.

October 2016. Infiniti G20 Was returning from Minna to Lagos. Full car with siblings and children. Had earlier lost my 2 back absorbers when I ran into a road bump without warning in a village after Boda. So I was deliberately careful of running into potholes because the bounce from the rear made steering correctly difficult when I run into bad spots. Somehow, I did just that. Ran into a pothole shortly before Ilorin and boom, I was Mr Criss Cross on the highway. We ended in the bush on the other side. Thank God there was no trailer or dangerous ditch while that madness lasted. I replaced those shocks in Ilorin before proceeding with the trip.

Sunday Dec 18. Returning from Zaria. Infiniti G20. Somewhere between Mokwa and Jebba. I knew the road was bad but there were some spots one can express the drive. I swayed right, left, right ... nowhere because all the ditches have successfully spread themselves across the road. The car was borne mid air. Usually when I find ditches like that, I increase by speed and firmly hold my steering, but this caught me. When the car landed, the wipers were auto-working, the plastic frame between the windscreen and the driver's door had removed, my front tires became wobbly.

I am a survivor. And I give God all the glory for that.

mine was not a pothole, it was a crater along benin-ekpoma road.....there was no way I could have seen it earlier....thank God there wasn't on coming traffic so I was able to swerve and reduce the impact drastically

Mine is actually different. You know as an experienced driver, I was dodging potholes on one particular federal road, the potholes were so bad that I don't know how I find myself going back on the same road instead of advancing.. I don't know when I turned 180°

kingreign:


Last week, Vehicle RX300 AWD,
Driving from Lagos to Abuja.
Mehn not funny.
Saw a truck coming and a useless Commercial bus driver trying to over take me withing very close range of the truck. Had to quickly jump into down the road to save the life of all the passengers on board that bus.

Two lower control arms bent, two front shocks collapse, brake servo became stuck. And alignment went haywire.

So frustrating

never drove on the expressway Tho. Buh my bro has this fun thing he always says whenever he encounters a pothole. the small and manageable ones, he will say... 'muje' which means chop am or enter an laidat. if it's big enough, he will gentle slow down and avoid it

I don't drive along the road... I prefer following the bush path

Mine happened this way, i was overtaking a trailer, funny enough there was a bike man coming who was not looking, he saw me late enough, there was a deep port hole in front of me, i would have swerved the car to the extreme end of the other road but for the oncoming okada man, i could not step on breaks because i just accelerated on power gear, and stepping on brakes into the port hole would be too dangerous, the trailer was by my side. I had no choice than to just suffer my already dead shocks, when i came out the car was just swerving on the road and the trailer driver might not have known i was almost entering under his truck, the useless okada man tot it was no doubt and accident and was looking back as i saw from my mirror, luckily nothing happened. Thanks to Jah

john4reala:
If I see see potholes when driving, I will park and fill it with sands

ǝʌıʇɔǝdsɹǝd ʇuǝɹǝɟɟıp ɐ ɯoɹɟ ǝɟıl ʇɐ ʞool oʇ ǝʌɐɥ noʎ sǝɯıʇǝɯos

Damn you don't want to know how high my car was in the air when I ran into a pothole @166km/h 2:05 Am some years back


It's the same notorious Gbongan road about to get to Gbongan junction all the way from Lagos can you imagine?


I had a friend in the car, he was woken by airbag, the next thing he did was try to open the door meanwhile I was ~1.6M in the air and cruising for about 3 seconds in the same altitude


As a bad sharp guy, I held my steering wheel with one hand and jacked his clothe, his collar , I would have gone for his belt but I guess I didn't think of that


Long story short my German Rover 400 landed with a loud bang, steering was hard and my was heading for the bushes, so I summoned my last strength and started steering away from the bushes, God was by my side as the car did not eventually go into the forest that night


Upon inspection, I had a cracked bottom plate, condemned steering rack and lowerarm+ball joint(driver side) destroyed

I wasn't grateful for the minor damages which could have been worse , I was grateful and I'm still grateful that I managed to somehow stop my friend from jumping out of the car, I probably would have landed on his head or he would have been smashed by the pencil carry coming behind me (oh and that pencil? Saw my car flying and left his steering wheel, the gearbox, steering rack, bumper and the sexy drop light, everything came apart on impact,



I have since fallen in love with Rover and I use just Rover till this day, even influenced some friends to buy too





Let's thank God for life (for those who believe)

symbianDON:
mine was not a pothole, it was a crater along benin-ekpoma road.....there was no way I couldn't have seen it earlier....thank God there wasn't on coming traffic so I was able to swerve and reduce the impact drastically

Benin - Ekpoma road? The pot holes there eh are "Well Hole".. See what it did to this bus I board from lagos "Edobor Line"

I had this terrible experience driving from Port Harcourt, along Enugu /Port Harcourt express way with my Honda Accord to Enugu state. It happened before Umueka Junction in Abia state. I was not too familiar with the road and there was no vehicle driving along in front of me. I was driving at speed of 120km/hr to Enugu and suddenly encountered this big pothole. I tapped my break once and smashed into the pothole. My front rim on passenger's side flew out into the bush with the tyre and the back tyre on same side squeezed on the rim.
I managed to control the car into the bush and came out unharmed. Villagers and onlookers gathered at the scene. It was like a movie scene.

Confirmed...
The southern part of Nigeria has the worst federal government road.
The best federal roads are in the north.

john4reala:
If I see see potholes when driving, I will park and fill it with sands

then cemented it,wait for it to solidify before continuing our journey.....