COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado — Alex Holden and her sister headed out Saturday night on a quick trip to get some tacos.
"We were heading to Fuzzy's on Dublin over there."
But as she passed through the intersection at Dublin and Templeton Gap, something cracked her windshield.
"So many things ran through my mind," Holden said. "Did I get shot at, did a rock fly up. I had no idea what happened.."
After stopping the car she located the culprit. a suspension cable used to keep the traffic lights in place broke away from it's mount and was dangling in her lane of traffic. When Alex hit it, the cable whipped around and hit her car.
"If it was a couple of inches lower, it could've killed somebody or caused some serious injury," she said.
She called the Police Department's non-emergency number to report the downed cable. The dispatcher gave her the number for the City claims office.
"They came out and did an assessment on my car to see if they would file a report, and I got a call back within less than 24 hours and they told me that they weren't liable due to it not being something they did," she said.
Kim Melchor, Lead Communication Specialist with the City of Colorado Springs, explained in an email that City infrastructure can occasionally fail unexpectedly.
"This claim was investigated by the claims department to determine if any previous work was done improperly or if there were past reports of a problem that were not addressed, to which there were none," Melchor wrote. "Under the Governmental Immunity Act the City of Colorado Springs would only be liable if damage were caused as a result of negligence."
Holden was baffled by the claim denial.
"It's their equipment that failed and caused damage."
She said her car insurance company told her they will cover the repairs. She just wishes the city would take responsibility for what happened.
"I understand that the City has to look out for themselves, but I feel that the little people need to be heard too."
Holden witnessed at least one other vehicle hit the cable
