How do potholes on the roads "siphon off" money from motorists' pockets?

36 billion, 47 billion, 56 billion. Government spending on road repairs and maintenance is growing every year. This is one of the largest budget items. But even this money is not enough! There are too many potholes, too many greedy thieves, and problems have been accumulating for too long.

In the end, bad roads are the main cause of accidents. In any civilized country, road services would already be overwhelmed with claims from injured drivers. For example, in America, with their quality of roads, the government spends millions of dollars on payments to motorists. And what about us? Feruza Begmatova found out.

"I got into an accident on the street."

This is car owner Mykyta Kushnersky.

"- Mercedes, s500.

- And the second car?

- A pit!"

In the pit, Nikita's car's wheel got damaged. This means that the police must arrive at the scene of the accident, followed by road workers. In theory, the latter should quickly fix the accident site. And then, even pay compensation to the owner for repairing the damaged car.

But the other end of the line clearly did not expect such a turn. Although native roads with a lunar landscape are the main cause of accidents.

"The accident rate is about 97 percent," says Viktor Medvid, a lawyer.

And in order to defeat the accident rate and eliminate one of the country's two main problems, a record 47 billion UAH was allocated for road repairs and construction this year! Next year, they promise even more! But no matter how much the road budget is expanded, it will still not be enough for everything!

"Somewhere around $100 billion is needed," says Viktor Medvid, a lawyer.

After all, almost 90 percent of the roads in Ukraine can hardly be called roads. And it is impossible to quickly restore something that has not been repaired for years.

"We don't have the production capacity to absorb this money," says Viktor Medvid, a lawyer.

Labor and equipment are in short supply, but there are plenty of officials who are enthusiastic about using budget money.

Last week, law enforcement officers were looking for such enthusiasts in 15 regions! Massive searches were conducted on highways across the country. And all because they found a quarter of a billion hryvnias worth of public funds being written off! Ukravtodor later explained that they were not to blame, it was all their "predecessors" - in 12-14 years. For example, before the Euro, the laws of mathematics in road arithmetic were brazenly circumvented:

"5 billion was allocated for construction - 5 million per km is the cost, with a normal markup it would be 6.5 million, but it turned out to be 40 million - 8.50, the corruption component was off the charts," says Viktor Medvid, a lawyer.

And while officials sift millions of state funds through potholes, drivers lose their hard-earned money irrevocably!

"The damage was over 100 thousand hryvnias," says Nikita Kushnersky, a motorist.

Our hero had to pay this amount out of his own pocket to repair his car when he hit another pothole two years ago. Back then, he also tried to compensate for the damage.

"All the time, the staff was transferring it to the main office, and then to another. And as a result, the material was simply lost. We need a culprit - first we need to find out who is to blame, and then we need to file a complaint against them," says Nikita Kushnersky, a motorist.

This time, Nikita decided to be more persistent.

But ironically, while waiting for the police, Mykyta got into a second accident. His car was hit by a truck.

Without risking waiting for the police any longer, they decided to take advantage of their official position, so to speak:

"I'm a journalist, we drove up here and wanted to know when the police would arrive."

After the call, the police crew arrived immediately.

"A truck hit me while I was standing there.

- What do you mean?

- In a word, I hit the jackpot, yes."

The police are well acquainted with the procedure during "pothole accidents" and have already called the people responsible for road maintenance themselves:

"Does the SHEU come here? I was there once, but they didn't come last time. At least they would have a representative."

Representatives of the road service have to record the presence of the pothole and find the person responsible for this area. But after our leisurely conversation, it's been three hours of waiting. And there is still no representative.

By the fourth hour, the police were tired of waiting.

"We want to know when the next one will be?

- I'll look for it now. They will come out, inspect it, and then they will lay it down, of course."

But no matter how many potholes are filled, they reappear. And although Ukravtodor promises to abolish patching as a phenomenon, temporary patches are still being put on the roads everywhere. And Ukrainian drivers everywhere go straight to the service station from the pits.

"There have been only 6 appeals to the courts over the past 2 years, 1 decision - 1 appeal was won. 1 was withdrawn, the rest are still pending," says Oleksandr Kava, Advisor to the Head of Ukravtodor.

But while in Ukraine it is a real judicial miracle to get compensation from Avtodor, abroad it is a common practice.

"Oh my God, there's a hole!"

America is a country of smooth roads and frequent lawsuits. If you break your car in a pothole on the highway, the city has to pay compensation.

"There was a big hole and I tried to drive around it, but I couldn't."

Chris could not get justice from the local authorities either. He had to pay 1,500 dollars for the car's repair himself.

"They said they didn't know this pit existed."

Although this story looks very Ukrainian, it is rather an exception. In America, road services check the condition of the highways every day, fixing and fencing off emergency areas. It is cheaper for the government to repair roads! After all, they spend enormous amounts of money to compensate drivers who have damaged their cars due to potholes. For example, in North Carolina, it's about $6 million annually, and in Louisiana, it's $42 million! A car breakdown due to a bad road costs from a hundred dollars to several thousand. If there are victims, it can even reach a sum with six zeros.

"I damaged the car."

Rostyslav is our compatriot who has been living in America for a long time. He damaged his car through the fault of the road services. As a result, he received a check without leaving his home.

And to make it easier to receive compensation from the state, the United States has even launched an app that offers residents to take pictures of potholes and send them to city services. As evidence.

But in our realities, this know-how definitely does not work. Ukrainian road workers cannot be convinced by a photo or even a police report.