Paint on Street

Today was garbage day in my neighborhood. It's obvious that someone put a paint can in a garbage can and whether the garbage men knew it or not it was dumped into a garbage truck and a puddle of it remained on the street that they would have obviously noticed when it happened. My husband drove through it and now our car has paint on it.

Will the city hold any liability in this? I called Department of Public Works and while they did send someone to clean up the mess promptly, when I mentioned the damage to my car I was treated with a completely rude response. I know we have some responsibility for driving over the paint but a little courtesy from a city employee would go a long way. Now I'm irritated. I took pictures of the mess, I took pictures of the offending home and their garbage can. If the paint doesn't scrape from the car I fully intend on going after the person's homeowners. However, if the paint spill would have been reported immediately, instead of after I noticed it, there wouldn't be damaged vehicles involved (at least two other cars drove into the paint).

If anyone is to blame it would be the person who put the paint in the garbage (which you are not suppose to do unless it is dried).

And the second one to blame would be yourself for driving through it.

You posted your message at 954 so I am guessing your garbage wasnt picked up much more before that. Even if it was picked up at 7 am that still isnt that much time to get it cleaned up. Sometimes you just need to take it as a lesson learned I guess.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Same Old, Same Old

If anyone is to blame it would be the person who put the paint in the garbage (which you are not suppose to do unless it is dried).

And the second one to blame would be yourself for driving through it.

You posted your message at 954 so I am guessing your garbage wasnt picked up much more before that. Even if it was picked up at 7 am that still isnt that much time to get it cleaned up. Sometimes you just need to take it as a lesson learned I guess.

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Fair enough, and I do know the offending house, just another example of living amongst a bunch of idiot slobs who care nothing for the area around them, that's why I hate my neighborhood so much. Their garbage cans were covered in paint, their driveway was covered in paint, it was obviously their paint (they just painted their house so the whole house is covered in the offending paint), however, you could imagine the denials if they get a letter from my insurance company trying to subrogate for damages. It looks like the paint is peeling off pretty easy since it dried anyway, though it dulled the paint on my car a little.

My point is, why can't anyone take some pride in their jobs? It would have been obvious to the garbage men when they overturned the can that paint spilled all over the street. Had they called right away, it could have been taken care of promptly. When I called and reported the spill it was cleaned up within 10 minutes. I had enough sense to call and report the spill, why didn't the city's own employees have the same sense?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Same Old, Same Old

If anyone is to blame it would be the person who put the paint in the garbage (which you are not suppose to do unless it is dried).

And the second one to blame would be yourself for driving through it.

You posted your message at 954 so I am guessing your garbage wasnt picked up much more before that. Even if it was picked up at 7 am that still isnt that much time to get it cleaned up. Sometimes you just need to take it as a lesson learned I guess.

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I don't really agree with your total response......

We have all rode over broken glass at some point that we did not see until we were in it I am sure at some point in our driving career......maybe another car was coming at us and we could not swerve around it........Soooo,

The person jenrose talked too should have also steered her toward the LA Law Dept. where citizens put in all sorts of damages the City has all/part responsibility for.

Too bad the DPW guys didn't tell the driver right away who then could radio/call back to the barns to have someone run a few cones over in order to prevent any damages of any kind.

Tooooooo bad,
I am sorry that happened to your family, jenrose.
And I am sorry the City Hall worker you tried to get guidance from, was curt with you about it.:(

P.S. BTW:
LOTS and lots of litigation against the City going on.......negotiations.......deals, etc.
LOTS!
Transparency.........it is more like the Berlin Wall against us up there!