Woman calls for awareness after massive pothole wrecks her car on Chicago’s South Side

By Jermont Terry

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    CHICAGO (WBBM) — It’s that time of year — the weather is getting warmer, and potholes are wreaking havoc on cars before crews can patch them up.

One woman said the craters are not just a headache — they’re dangerous. Early Tuesday morning, an accident diverted traffic into a neighborhood where she found herself stranded after encountering a nasty pothole.

Drivers around the city have been dodging ditches in the street — with many streets plagued with potholes despite a relatively mild winter.

“It’s a street problem,” she said. “Everyone has to slow down.”

On her Tuesday morning commute to work, Charisse Neely found herself at an oft-treacherous stretch of 69th Street near St. Lawrence Avenue in the South Side’s Grand Crossing neighborhood, where overpasses for the Chicago Skyway and the Norfolk Southern Railway rise overhead. A lot of other drivers were going that way too.

“It was an accident, I think, so a lot of cars had to come this way,” she said.

Neely ended up being the victim of an accident herself under the Norfolk Southern viaduct, because of a pothole.

“It’s like shaky, so some kind of way, I heard a bump — and I ran into the steel pole under the viaduct,” she said.

The pothole is one of the larger ones around the city. Neely’s car was left with the front end smashed and a front wheel off.

“I was like, what happened? And I hit the pole because of this big hole under this viaduct,” she said. “No, I was not speeding.”

Neely said the street is so bumpy as she tried maneuvering her way through that she hit a pothole with such force that her front axle broke. She lost control, jumped the curb, and slammed into a beam.

“Chicago ‘Pothollia’ tore up my car and almost ended my life,” Neely said.

Despite our warmer winter, city streets in Chicago were still filled with potholes this spring.

“Awareness needs to be made,” said Neely.

The Chicago Department of Transportation said more than 25,000 potholes have been filled just in alleys citywide, and crews have patched 106,000 potholes on streets so far this year.

“Everyone texted me today, ‘Oh it’s getting worse over here,'” said Neely. “It’s been like that. It’s common problem in this neighborhood.”

In 2024 CDOT said it resurfaced more than 160 miles of arterial streets, residential streets, and alleyways — and the department said it will do so this year too. Unfortunately for Neely, her 2009 Ford Focus won’t hit any streets again.

“It’s totaled,” she said. “I called the junkyard.”

Neely only had liability insurance on her car, which is why it is totaled. She did report the pothole to 311, and CDOT said it needs everyone to do that — and never to assume someone else will make that call.

Pothole work is in full swing through the summer.

The full statement on potholes from CDOT is below:

So far in 2025, CDOT crews have patched more than 160,000 potholes in streets and more than 25,000 in alleyways.

The months between December and April mark the peak of pothole season in Chicago, when freeze-thaw cycles and harsh weather lead to the highest number of potholes on our streets. However, crews work throughout the spring, summer and fall as well. On dry, mild days, crews can fill thousands of potholes across the city, and in the winter months we have crews out seven days a week.

Over the spring, summer, and fall, residents will see more CDOT crews out grinding and resurfacing roads and alleys. Repaving is the most effective long-term solution to prevent potholes from forming. Last year, CDOT resurfaced more than 160 miles of arterial streets, residential streets, and alleyways—critical work that helps us get ahead of the pothole problem.

CDOT encourages the public to use the 311 system to help identify street and alley locations that need the attention of pothole patching crews. City residents can report potholes through one of the following methods: Using the website 311.chicago.gov, CHI311 mobile app, or simply calling 311.

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