Woman says she has severe injuries after driving over loose manhole

ATLANTA — An Atlanta woman has major injuries after she says a missing manhole cover on Peachtree Road in Buckhead launched her car into the air with her in it.
 
Pamela Dale said the impact fractured her back.
 
Dale told Channel 2's Matt Johnson the impact was so loud and so powerful, she thought the manhole cover had exploded underneath her.
 
The city is ruling that possibility out but is looking into how the cover may have come off, creating a hazard that sent the woman airborne in her car.

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“It was the scariest thing I’ve ever dealt with,” Dale said.

She can't walk on her own almost two weeks after she says she was driving in Buckhead and all of a sudden something launched her car into the air.

“I heard like an explosion or a boom under the car,” Dale said. “I felt the car moving up.”

A witness told Johnson the manhole cover was off two Saturdays ago on Peachtree Road just before 6 p.m.

That left a huge hole in the street near the Buckhead MARTA station that he said Dale hit with her front tire and it launched her 5 feet in the air.

“I had hit the concrete so hard, it was the loudest boom that you can just imagine,” Dale told Johnson.

Dale showed Johnson pictures of her Mercedes-Benz sedan that showed damage underneath the car that totaled it.%

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She said the impact fractured her back and she may need help walking for three months or more.

“Is this going to be something I’m going to have to deal with, you know, for the rest of my life?” Dale said.

“It can happen to somebody else,” said attorney Michael Baskin, who represents Dale.

He said the city should have put up a sign warning drivers this had happened.

“We possibly have an imminent danger here right in the heart of a highly dense population,” Baskin said.

The Department of Watershed told Johnson they are investigating what happened to the manhole cover and they're taking steps to tighten it further.

In the meantime, Dale said this may keep her off the roads permanently.

“For me, it's fearful wanting to drive again,” Dale said.

So far, no claim has been filed against the city.

Firefighters sealed the manhole back up after the incident, and the city told Johnson crews have been out to make sure it is sealed tightly.

Cox Media Group