Salt gritter chipped my windscreen - what to do?

forgotmyname

Would be interesting to hear how a gritter throwing grit out the back fairly low down damaged your windscreen.

They could claim you drove into the grit, They may counter sue you for theft of the grit that landed on your car.
Quick hide the evidence. A small chip could have caused the crack with the cold and the heat from you blowers.
Guy at work did a silly thing, Poured hot water over his screen to de-ice it, Huge crack appeared from a tiny stone chip.

Sadly looked like its put your hands in your pocket time. Does a windscreen claim affect your insurance premium?

NiallB

oldagetraveller wrote: »

".... polishing out too much and too deep is likely to leave a distorted area on the screen. I've seen the result!:o

Bifocal windscreen anybody? :-)

hubert_cumberdale

thats better than when i went past one with my window open and got a peice of salt in my eye lol

that stung - car didnt ice up inside tho

scotsbob

GabbaGabbaHey wrote: »

The OP said that he was travelling in the opposite direction to the gritter, not overtaking it!

Try reading my post more carefully. I didn't say they did, I said I wouldn't.

cyclonebri1

hubert_cumberdale wrote: »

thats better than when i went past one with my window open and got a peice of salt in my eye lol

that stung - car didnt ice up inside tho

You one of those that stands at the footbal midwinter with no tee shirt on??;););)

clever_username

scotsbob wrote: »

Try reading my post more carefully. I didn't say they did, I said I wouldn't.

pretty clear you misinterpreted the original post though isn't it?

it would be pretty inexplicable to randomly state 'i would never overtake a gritter' if you'd understood what the op was talking about.

no massive shame in admitting you misinterpreted the op and thought he was overtaking the gritter.

clever_username

forgotmyname wrote: »

Would be interesting to hear how a gritter throwing grit out the back fairly low down damaged your windscreen.

not sure it would be that interesting to hear, the stuff is flung out of a spinning wheel that isn't exactly an inch above the tarmac.

cyclonebri1

clever_username wrote: »

pretty clear you misinterpreted the original post though isn't it?

it would be pretty inexplicable to randomly state 'i would never overtake a gritter' if you'd understood what the op was talking about.

no massive shame in admitting you misinterpreted the op and thought he was overtaking the gritter.

Methinks you are correct, cough up please SB

Added, I once overtook on of those dirty great motorway gritters doing 30 on a clear but very cold evening, I won't do it again in a hurry

Wig

I would say as the OP had nowhere to go to avoid being sprayed. There is the possibility of a claim against the gritter. At the end of the day the gritter although doing a public service has possibly damaged the OPs car, they don't have an exemption that allows them to damage other cars so it all comes down to probability that the gritter caused the damage.

The OP having been splashed examined his car, this might have been the first time he examined the car up close looking for specks of damage, and low and behold he found some. However I imagine if you look up close at any well trodden car you will find this sort of damage, it's just that the drivers don't look up close normally so it is only natural to think that OPs damage was caused by the gritter, but is that necessarily the correct conclusion to come to?


BTW I get the feeling that the chips on the windscreen are probably pin-head size rather than chunky chips, and as such they won't spread into cracks.

LittleMissAspie

You need to complain to the council with details of when and where it was, they will look into whether the gritter was following the rules. It's all very well people saying there's nothing you can do but what if you were a cyclist? You could have been blinded or seriously hurt.