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Driver says concrete sat in roadway for three weeks after incident, denied claim by city
BATON ROUGE - While driving to work at the end of July, Darrell Cummings ran into a large piece of concrete on Perkins Road. He damaged his car and took it to be repaired, but what happened after that prompted him to call 2 On Your Side.
"That piece stayed out there for a solid three weeks," said Cummings.
The chunk of concrete had rebar sticking from it. It came from a section of the median on Perkins Road west of College Drive.
"I could have lost control with that big thing - that's not no pebble," he said.
The impact caused some damage to his car. He called the city and filed a claim with Sedgwick. Cummings received a phone call followed up by an email on August 13 letting him know the city would not be taking responsibility because the city was unaware of the issues involving the road hazard. Sedgwick says its first notice of the issue was on August 6.
Cummings says he ran into the piece of concrete on July 31 and called the city that day. No matter, Cummings says the situation should have been taken care of immediately. Instead, he drove by almost daily and watched as that chunk of concrete and others moved around the roadway potentially creating a hazard for others. The area had pieces of rebar sticking from it as of Tuesday at noon.
On Monday, Cummings says the piece was moved to the grass nearby.
"The mayor or whoever, somebody needs to address that, somebody needs to address me," said Cummings.
After 2 On Your Side reached out to the city, the Department of Maintenance went to the location on Tuesday and removed any potential threats to vehicles. Maintenance will work with Traffic Engineering to schedule a repair.