LEEDS — You know how it goes. You swerve to avoid one pothole and hit an even bigger one on the other side. It’s almost like a metaphor for life.

But for Martha Jordan and her husband, it has bone-jarring reality. In the spring, they hit a pothole so large on Route 219 in Leeds, it flattened a tire and bent the rim. It rattled their nerves and cost nearly $1,000 to repair.

The only form of satisfaction for the Jordans: the chance to write a hot letter to the Maine Department of Transportation. And the $250 top prize that came with winning the Worst Road in Maine contest.

The Jordans’ pothole horror story edged out several others, including a Lewiston man’s description of College Street recognized as a runner-up.

For the Jordans, it happened on a dark night in April as they were headed west on 219, slightly west of the former Leeds Corner Market. The stretch of road was a cratered mess. They had to continuously maneuver the Chevrolet Impala toward the center of the road to avoid hazards on the right side.

Suddenly, there was a huge pothole right in front of them.

“It was one hell of a hole,” Martha Jordan said. “It was obvious that it was deep and filled with water. We pulled to the left and there was another hole, a gigantic one, right there.”

What followed was the kind of shuddering crash that feels like it could knock fillings from your teeth.

“The seat belts latched us right into our seats. The GPS went flying. It hit as hard as you ever want to hit,” Jordan said. “If someone had hit that hole with a smaller car with 13-inch tires, they would have gone end-over-end.”

Automotively speaking, the Jordans limped the 5 or 6 miles to their home in Turner. It was too dark and the road shoulder too soft to pull over and change the tire. Somehow, they managed to drive home on a mangled rim.

“When we got home, we had 11 pounds of air left in that tire,” Jordan said.

It was night. There was not much to do about it except wait for the garages to open in the morning. That and jot down your feelings in writing.

“I did fire off a hot little letter to our director of the Maine Department of Transportation,” Jordan said.

That might have been the end of her irritations. But the following day, the Jordans went back to the scene of the carnage (in a different vehicle) to see what action the MDOT had taken.

“There was no cone. There was no marker, no nothing,” Jordan said.

Just those gaping holes waiting for the next vehicle — the next rim and axle — to come along.

“There was an element of safety,” Jordan said, “that was totally ignored.”

The Maine Better Transportation Association, which sponsors the contest, completely agrees.

“Martha’s experience may seem extreme, but it is a lot more common than most might imagine,” said MBTA Executive Director Maria Fuentes. “A recent study shows the average Mainer pays $250 a year in added vehicle maintenance costs due to bad roads, but the truth is there is a greater cost — in safety risks and lost mobility and business opportunities.”

Jordan and her husband Roland travel Route 219 often to get to Winthrop. Martha said she recently stopped to examine the area where the holes were in April. The road has been paved over, but little else was done. She doesn’t have high hopes that it will be in good condition come spring.

“The road,” she said, “is breaking up already.”

Paul Beaudette of Lewiston cast his vote in the contest for College Street. Not just one small stretch of it, either. Pretty much the whole thing beyond Russell Street.

“I drive a trailer with no springs,” he said. “Things would bounce right out of it. You just couldn’t find a good place to drive.”

Some sections of College have been repaired — a water main break just beyond Pettingill Street helped speed things along — but already, new deterioration has begun. As most know, a lot can happen to a road over the long winter and next spring, a new contest will get under way.

1st prize: Route 219 in Turner, nominated by Martha and Roland Jordan

2nd prize: Route 141 in Swanville, nominated by Delbert and Mary Taylor Bunker

3rd prize: River Road, nominated by John Mancini

Runner up: College Street in Lewiston, nominated by Paul Beaudette

Runner up: Forest Avenue in Orono, nominated by Peggy Leonard Markson

Runner up: Route 43 from Hudson to Old Town, nominated by Faith Pineo

Runner up: Route 220 from Washington to Thorndike, nominated by Laura Pepler Jade

Runner up: Route 161, west of Fort Kent, nominated by Steve Rusnack