New driver - can employer force me to use my car if it’s snowing

SLITHER99

redux wrote: »

None of this macho posturing bollux would be necessary if the councils would get themselves and their contractors off their !!!!!! and treat the roads

I don't think that would stop some of the people here, do you?

caz_cardiff87

thanks for the replies, just a response to some of the comments made....

a) i have the correct insurance, this was all explained to me by the boss before i got my car. I’m covered so mystery solved.

b) as for getting tyres sooner, yes ideally that would have been great. I wasn’t waiting until my MOT for them to tell me they need doing, but other financial issues have cropped up and things have taken longer to get sorted. I do appologise if this is unsatisfactory for some of you but the fact is they are not illegal yet but i knew it would be unsafe in snow and ice, so didn’t drive.

c) I’m more than happy to go and get experience driving in these conditions, but somewhere quiet, possibly with someone in the car with me... not during morning traffic. That said, all the roads are clear today so there’s very little opportunity to do so here. 2010 would have been a great year to get some practice but alas i was not driving then.

d) A few people assumed i was refusing to work ("Would it make any difference to your decision if you weren't paid if you didn't turn up. However if you can make it into work by other means then at least turn up and let them find you a pool car to use.”).

OK firstly, this is the NHS we’re talking about, yes some departments have a pool car, we have tried to obtain one in the past and always been turned down (we are not nurses / doctors or frontline staff), currently this is not an option. Also, for those who couldn’t make it in yesterday its either taken as annual leave or unpaid so I’m not really sure what you are getting at.... I walked a few miles with a short train journey inbetween, although delayed, but i got there. i do make the effort to find other ways to get in, living locally i really don’t see a reason not to.

e) unfortunately, cardiff council do little to grit the residential roads round here as they are not a priority and understandably so, even though the main roads eventually clear, getting to them is still difficult when your surrounding roads are covered in snow and ice.

But thank you to the majority on here that understood where i was coming from and offered some great advice. Obviously i know in future to be more prepared but ultimately my lack of experience with this wouldn’t change regardless of snow tyres, chains and spades until i can spend some time getting out there and learning. I guess i’ll have to wait a little longer for the snow to come back.

Joe_Horner

If you don't feel confident, stay off the road until it clears. It really is that simple - every accident out there over the past week has been caused by someone who "knew how to do it" when they clearly didn't, or they wouldn't have crashed. Sadly, most of those drivers will carry on convinced that it was "unavoidable" rather than stopping to work out what went wrong and how they might avoid it in future.

The bottom line is, any time you lose control of a car it's because you were failing to drive appropriately for the conditions, where "conditions" are not just about the weather. They include the weather, the road, your vehicle (type and condition), your own abilities / experience and even what you had for breakfast (can affect your concentration level).

If you spin a car at 5 mph (which my partner did yesterday - luckily no damage to anyone or anything) then 5mph was too fast for the conditions. Sometimes conditions (remember, that's all conditions!) are such that 0mph is the only safe speed.

There are plenty of road warriors out there who'll tell you how "it's only a few inches", or how "it's worse in the Alps and they don't have a problem there", followed shortly by offering an anecdote about how they've even been out in stuff so bad that they had an "unavoidable" accident. Don't listen to them.

When you're driving it's your responsibility, and yours alone, to make sure that your car doesn't hit things. You have the same driving licence as anyone else that says you're qualified to make judgements concering that. If your judgement is that the overall conditions present an unacceptable risk then there's an unacceptable risk.

caz_cardiff87

notanewuser wrote: »

It snowed last year. It snowed the year before that. In fact, it's snowed pretty much every year in South Wales since 1977 (I have the photos to prove it).

What if, for example, you left London which has bo snow and went to Kent for a couple of days where it did snow. What would you do? Would you be prepared for that or just leave your car in Kent and get a helicopter back to London?

I know it snows every year here, but this is the first year i’ve had a car. I passed my test about 11 months ago... so no if i was going from london to kent i’d probably get really nervous about it because i’ve had no experience driving in the snow. Or stay ahead of the game and look at the weather forecast and decide what to do.

I do appologise for not having as much experience as the rest of you, it’s so nice to come on here for some advice and then have to scroll through a bunch of insults, accusations and assumptions...

redux

caz_cardiff87 wrote: »

thanks for the replies, just a response to some of the comments made....

a) i have the correct insurance, this was all explained to me by the boss before i got my car. I’m covered so mystery solved.

b) as for getting tyres sooner, yes ideally that would have been great. I wasn’t waiting until my MOT for them to tell me they need doing, but other financial issues have cropped up and things have taken longer to get sorted. I do appologise if this is unsatisfactory for some of you but the fact is they are not illegal yet but i knew it would be unsafe in snow and ice, so didn’t drive.

c) I’m more than happy to go and get experience driving in these conditions, but somewhere quiet, possibly with someone in the car with me... not during morning traffic. That said, all the roads are clear today so there’s very little opportunity to do so here. 2010 would have been a great year to get some practice but alas i was not driving then.

d) A few people assumed i was refusing to work ("Would it make any difference to your decision if you weren't paid if you didn't turn up. However if you can make it into work by other means then at least turn up and let them find you a pool car to use.”).

OK firstly, this is the NHS we’re talking about, yes some departments have a pool car, we have tried to obtain one in the past and always been turned down (we are not nurses / doctors or frontline staff), currently this is not an option. Also, for those who couldn’t make it in yesterday its either taken as annual leave or unpaid so I’m not really sure what you are getting at.... I walked a few miles with a short train journey inbetween, although delayed, but i got there. i do make the effort to find other ways to get in, living locally i really don’t see a reason not to.

e) unfortunately, cardiff council do little to grit the residential roads round here as they are not a priority and understandably so, even though the main roads eventually clear, getting to them is still difficult when your surrounding roads are covered in snow and ice.

But thank you to the majority on here that understood where i was coming from and offered some great advice. Obviously i know in future to be more prepared but ultimately my lack of experience with this wouldn’t change regardless of snow tyres, chains and spades until i can spend some time getting out there and learning. I guess i’ll have to wait a little longer for the snow to come back.

I honestly don't think you needed to post here to ask for advice, as you are more sensible than unfortunately slightly too many of the replies you've received

You might see if you can get a friend or family member to take you for some practice off the road somewhere. Something like a disused airfield would be ideal, but it's harder nowadays to be allowed in to places like that.

But don't worry about it if it's not convenient.

Gilbert2

notanewuser wrote: »

The tyre thing - not clever. You know it's winter, we usually have snow in January or February and you leave tyres with 2mm tread on your car. It's not about the MOT, it's about being a responsible driver!

As for not having practiced snow driving, go to a local car park and practice it now, away from other cars and walls/bollards etc. when else will you get chance?

You can buy a folding snow shovel for about a fiver to keep in the car. No need for a garden or anything. And it may just stop you from ending up stuck somewhere or abandoned in a dangerous situation at some time. And the carpet advice is sensible too. Even a set of cheap car mats will do it. But of course, you know better.

You sound extremely immature to me.

What pathetic advice.

So, you're advocating spending some £200 to £400+ on 4 new tyres, a fiver for a shovel, a set of cheap car mats, prob a tenner & the fuel needed to go to a local park(?) to practice driving in the snow.

Upwards of possibly laying out some £400+ for the sake of, err, one day of snow inconvenience!

All this whilst hopefully calculating that every other driver does this too who are the likely ones to block the roads anyway because they haven't done as you say!

What rubbish.

SLITHER99

"You weren't driving appropriate to the conditions". I love that one. It's just a neat way of saying "You failed, you're a terrible person and you deserved it"

Sadly, my insurance disagreed with all the shouters on here on that one.

SLITHER99

caz_cardiff87 wrote: »

I know it snows every year here, but this is the first year i’ve had a car. I passed my test about 11 months ago... so no if i was going from london to kent i’d probably get really nervous about it because i’ve had no experience driving in the snow. Or stay ahead of the game and look at the weather forecast and decide what to do.

I do appologise for not having as much experience as the rest of you, it’s so nice to come on here for some advice and then have to scroll through a bunch of insults, accusations and assumptions...

You have a license => all the experience you need.

Make your own judgement call. So long as you and your employer are happy, all good.

I've worked for the NHS too dong IT related stuff... odd bunch to say the least. No two days are the same... ever!

googler

WRT 'how do you get experience in the snow if you don't try', and the response 'nobody says you HAVE to go out in the snow', it strikes me that any one could go to work in the morn, say 40 miles away, and it tips down during the working day, the driver will be faced with that journey home, or sleep in the office. Wouldn't it be better to be forearmed and ready for what that journey may hold?

Gilbert2

notanewuser wrote: »

It snowed last year. It snowed the year before that. In fact, it's snowed pretty much every year in South Wales since 1977 (I have the photos to prove it).

What if, for example, you left London which has bo snow and went to Kent for a couple of days where it did snow. What would you do? Would you be prepared for that or just leave your car in Kent and get a helicopter back to London?

You do talk some rubbish.

South wales is a large area, south of Caerphilly it hardly ever snows to the extent where it causes chaos.

Since 1977 there have probably been only 6 or 7 times where areas like Cardiff have suffered bad snow, enough to cause chaos.

And even then it's probably for maybe a day or two, 2010 was an extreme year and everything was cleared within 4 or 5 days anyway.

Therefore, even in the Welsh valleys, severe snow does not last for weeks on end but, in the great scheme of things since 1977, snow is hardly an issue. It causes just odd days of inconvenience.

I'd calculate that in 35 years, since 1977, maybe a week or so of work has been lost to snowy weather in all that time.

The average person probably loses that in the times they have had a cold in the past 35 years.

It's not even an issue.