KINGMAN, AZ — A pothole has impacted several drivers heading down Interstate 40 near Kingman.
Ryan Stephens and his wife went on a road trip to the Grand Canyon. On the way back home to California, they were hit with bad luck.
"We hit a pothole at highway speeds and, man, that pothole must have been deep because it thundered throughout the entire car. Instantly, all our gauges went off, two flat tires, rims were damaged and we barely got off to the side of the road," says Stephens.
That was just the beginning of a domino effect.
"Another car pulled over with two flat tires and then soon after that, another car and another car,” says Stephens.
One of those other drivers was Frank Meza.
"So far, six cars hit the pothole,” says Meza.
It blew out two of his tires as well. He says the pothole was also at a downhill turn, making it even more dangerous.
"There's a lot of 18-wheelers and it really kinda scared the heck out of us because hitting that hard… and I had to get control of the wheel,” says Meza.
ABC15 was told most of the drivers ended up on the side of the road for hours waiting for a tow truck.
Meza was taken to a shop in Kingman where he says they only had larger tires, costing him more than $700 out of pocket.
"It looked like it was covered up at one point because it looked like new tar. But, I don't know, it wasn't enough. It's really deep and really dangerous and I think they need to keep an eye out for that,” says Meza.
As for Stephens and his wife, they had to be towed all the way to Las Vegas to get new tires and then make their way back home to California.
"We exchanged numbers with a lot of people. I'm still texting and communicating with some of them today on how we file claims with the Arizona Department of Transportation,” says Stephens.
ABC15 reached out to the Arizona Department of Transportation. They tell us they don’t have an update on this specific pothole yet but they are applying available resources to ensure that I-40 is a safe and reliable corridor for all drivers.