The incident occurred just after merging onto the inner-loop 495 North-bound from West-bound highway 50, between highway 50 and 66, in fairfax, Virginia. During the merge, I accelerated my vehicle to equal to the speed of traffic while maintaining my position in the on/off-lane used for the 50/60 merger. Because I was continuing North-bound on 495 towards tyson's corner, I started procedures to exit the 66 on-lane and merge into North-bound 495 traffic. These procedures included checking both my side and rear-view mirrors as well as my blind spots. Needless to say, during the procedures my eyes were routinely forward to check on forward traffic. Between my mirror and blind spot checks, I noticed that I was quickly approaching a massive pothole that laid directly in the path of my forward progression. I estimate the pothole size being two feet in length, one foot in width, and one foot in depth (I have pictures). Although I attempted to avoid the pothole, at around 60mph, in the rain, with a guard rail to my right and traffic to my left, there was very little I could do to avoid it without risking my life, my passenger's life, and lives of fellow commuters. I hit the pothole. The impact was so sever it not only bent my front, passenger's side wheel and ripped a quarter-size gaping hole in my tire, it deployed all my passenger's side airbags and possibly ruined my suspension. At the time of impact, my passenger was leaning against the arm-rests and the window directly on the airbag deployment path. His arm, face, and hearing were injured during the incident. I allowed the car to slow down to safe speeds by releasing the accelerator. Once at safe speeds, I continued to an emergency exit pullout where I awaited police and a towing vehicle. After speaking with the police, a vdot emergency vehicle pulled up and offered assistance. He later informed me that the pothole had been previously addressed and should have fixed well before the time of my incident.

- Falls Church, VA, USA