This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Utah Court of Appeals upheld a district court's ruling that Salt Lake City was not negligent in failing to identify and repair a pothole that led to a serious injury in October 2011.
Jeffrey Wood said he tripped on a pothole near a curb on Blaine Avenue — a residential street running parallel to 1700 South — that had gone unreported for four months despite being frequently passed by city street sweepers and sanitation workers.
In a decision written by Judge Kate A. Toomey, the court noted that while Salt Lake City asks its street sweepers and sanitation workers to report potholes, it does not require them to do so.
The district court previously heard that Salt Lake City fixed 29,000 potholes in 2011 and ruled that Wood had been unable to prove that the city's efforts were inadequate.
The pothole that Wood tripped on was repaired before the city knew of Wood's incident, the appellate ruling noted, after another person reported a pothole on a nearby street.