Can I claim from the council if the road surface caused my accident?

saving_student

Was driving along a straight, uphill stretch of road at 3pm today when I lost all control of the car, swerved across and back and then did a 180 into the hedge.

There was no oil on the road, it was snowing at the time but not sticking, and I was doing 35mph in a D-restricted zone.

There are no witnesses (lucky as I probably would have hit them), yet a passer-by stopped and told us that exactly the same had happened to him just before Christmas, and that when he'd taken his car to the garage, the mechanic said the same thing had happened to him too, a week earlier.

It seems strange that all 3 of us would have done a 180 into the hedge/wall on the same stretch of road at a safe speed.

If I can prove the road was unsafe, would I get money back and keep my NCB? Really worried about insurance costs next year as I had zero NCB anyway.

Sorry for the lengthy description, new to this (but not the emails :P)

Any pointers very welcome.

vikingaero

Snow and 35mph?!?!

Reality check.

Hintza

Perhaps.

But you would need to check if anyone has reported a problem. They can hardly be liable if they don't know about it (unless of course they have done something negligent, dangerous etc).

You might also need to prove what is causing the accidents.

The question is how much time and effort are you willing to put in? You will have a lot of work and will probably need legal advise if they play hard ball.

Contact the council and ask them then follow it up and chase up other folk if possible.

But as Viking says snow and 35mph will probably the most likely cause.

Crabman

There have been concerns about a type of surface known as Stone Mastic Asphalt which is laid tarmac & stone chips at the same time. Whilst this saves money for the council, it also makes the surface more 'slippery'.

There's an entry on Wikipedia with info:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_mastic_asphalt#Disadvantages

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file_on_4/4278419.stm

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/motorbikes/2750422/Motorcycle-road-safety-Get-a-grip.html

goldspanners

saving_student wrote: »

Any pointers very welcome.

drive to suit the conditions.

a long straight uphill road and all of a sudden lost control.
why would the road be at fault?
maybe it was your car,or maybe your driving?

its always someone elses fault.

mikey72

I had the same once, long sweeping road, lots ot negative camber, and straight off. It was signed, but the last car off the week before took the signing with them. I never found a way to claim, but it could be worth talking to your insurance company to pursue the council for damages, providing you're insured for the legal bit.
I don't think you've any chance of keeping your NCB, but if you can chase the council responsible for the road you may get some compensation. I don't hold out much hope though I'm afraid.

saving_student

If I'd said I was doing 35mph in light rain would that have changed your opinion? The conditions were the same - the snow turned to water as/before it hit the ground and it wasn't as though I was in a blizzard and hit something I couldn't see!

In the 45 minutes I was there after I crashed cars came past constantly at up to 70mph yet had no problem.

Thanks for the tip about the new surface. I've done some more googling and it seems like I would be able to claim for whiplash but not the car damage.

hewhoisnotintheknow

sounds a bit odd

35 sounds too slow for a national limit

why did the people driving at 70 not have any issues

surely if the road was that bad the loons driving along there on a saturday night would of all come off aswell

Crabman

Purely out of interest what car was it and what tyres were fitted at the time?

I know it's mentioned a lot on this board but having decent quality tyres can make that crucial difference in these situations.

hewhoisnotintheknow

Crabman wrote: »

Purely out of interest what car was it and what tyres were fitted at the time?

I know it's mentioned a lot on this board but having decent quality tyres can make that crucial difference in these situations.

I used to go down to our local stock track when they opened it up for locals to take their own cars on there

It was wonderful fun watching the cars queue up and inspecting their tyres, 200sx with cheapo tyres, SMASH

Gtis, cheapo tyres skid skid skid CRASH

Some local loads with metros and and AX gti, with decent tyres, got good times, qucicker than the bigs cars!

Rolandtheroadie

Crabman wrote: »

There have been concerns about a type of surface known as Stone Mastic Asphalt which is laid tarmac & stone chips at the same time.

Do they not normally post 20 mph restriction signs when they do that?
Was it the new surface? Surely it couldnt be the cause of all 3 accidents over the past couple of months anyway.



You need to find out what caused your car to swerve right. Did you brake? change radio channel? Hit a pothole? A rut in the road? Light a cigarette? There must have been something.