Senior loses car to massive pothole outside Reilly Center

Bryan Izzo's 1990 Ford Tempo dove front-first into a giant pothole outside the Reilly Center Tuesday afternoon, as seen in this grainy, reader-submitted cell phone photo.

Maintenance officials at St. Bonaventure University closed the southernmost portion of Bonaventure Road Tuesday afternoon after a pothole approximately eight feet wide and four feet deep swallowed a student’s vehicle.

Senior French major Bryan Izzo said he jumped out of his moving car, a tan 1990 Ford Tempo, just before it tipped front-first into the gaping hole.

“I don’t like taking the road behind the RC in the winter too much because it’s like running a slalom trying to avoid the potholes,” Izzo said, “but today I was late to my Social World class and decided to risk it. Guess that was a bad decision.”

Maintenance spokesman Yuri Kovalev said the department was aware of issues with potholes on Bonaventure Road but conditions through today hadn’t warranted patching.

“We’ll patch where needed when it’s dry, but usually we just count on the snow to fill in the open holes,” Kovalev said. “Obviously, we missed a big one today.”

Officials closed Bonaventure Road to vehicle traffic for approximately three hours while a tow truck removed Izzo’s car from the hole, Kovalev said. The road had since reopened, with the area around the hole cordoned off until the university received enough asphalt to temporarily fill it.

Officials speculated the massive pothole, located right outside the south entrance to the Reilly Center, probably materialized after several smaller ones collapsed in on each other.

The mishap totalled Izzo’s Tempo, causing an estimated $600 in damage to the front end.

Pothole problems have plagued campus roads for the past several winters. In October 2007, the university announced it had received a $2 million grant to improve its roads for public access. Construction is scheduled for this summer — not soon enough for Izzo.

“I always thought my car would just get a bent rim or something from these potholes, not get completely swallowed up,” he said. “But they’re lucky it was me that lost my shitty car and not one of these kids driving a BMW or Mercedes.”