Cracked windscreen

29th June 2010

In the bad weather travelling home from work a gritting lorry went in the opposite direction and there was a very loud bang like a gun going off which I then discovered was my windscreen cracking from a piece of grit hitting it.
I didn't claim on my car insurance as the council advised me to claim from them. The response from the council was they grit the highways as part of their maintenance plan and all griiting vehicles are built to the same specification to spread grit evenly over the road surface. No complaints prior to the incodent had been received by the council so they were not on warning regarding the vehicle. This being so, they consider they were not in brach of their statutory duties and, moreover, that they have taken reasonable care in the circumstances to ensure the safety of the highways.
I was told by a someone who works for the council that during the period they have particularly large pieces of grit which had been causing them problems.
I do not understand why I should be out of pocket £450 just because nobody else complained. Do I have a case against the council?

Replies (1)

Potholes.co.uk Expert     posted : 29/06/10 at 2:45 pm

In my humble opinion, Courts have tended to take an 'omelette and eggs' approach to gritting roads. The end result is a much safer road which can potentially save lives. In achieving that safer road, some cars will be pinged by grit, damaging their paintwork and windows.

Can you prove that it was a piece of grit that hit your windscreen? If not, your chance of success is already nil. Debris from the road hits windscreens all the time which is why it is considered as a non fault claim on your insurance and you only have to pay a piffling amount to have the windscreen replaced.

If you can prove that it was grit, what you need to establish is whether or not the highway authority have been negligent and had any knowledge of the problems to which you refer prior to your incident.

If they had no knowledge, they will probably be able to defend your claim quite easily.

How do you find out if there were any problems? You ask them to disclose any internal and external correspondence during winter which relates to problems encountered with the salt supply.

I hope this helps.