Flying stones on motorway

letsbehonest

A warning, whilst passing two men cutting back grass and shrubland on the side of the M2 a stone shot out at such a force and hit my rear neaside door window shattering it. no one sitting on the back seat thankfully glass everwhere in the back , what if I had a small child in a travel seat in the back?. After reporting this incident to the local Highway's authority depot although they were very appologetic there was still a shrug of the shoulders and a reply of there is not much we can do about it.
What about some form of mesh netting erected on a rolling frame move as you cut.
No one hurt or injured yet,,,, carry on regardless

pappa_golf

remove strimmers from staff replace by small pair of scissors




job sorted for you now

Stevie_Palimo

Freak accident and probably a very uncommon thing likely to happen, Whilst annoying you have two choices claim from insurance and have increased premium or pay for the repair and if you wish send a copy of the bill to the highways agency with a letter telling them to pay you back, They probably won't do so but may be worth a shot.

shaun_from_Africa

letsbehonest wrote: »

What about some form of mesh netting erected on a rolling frame move as you cut

Which is exactly what they do where I'm currently working (Trinidad). They tend to use strimmers instead of lawnmowers and it's standard practice to have a screen between the area being strimmed and the road.


I would suggest that you do as Steve Palimo suggested and send a copy of the repair bill along with a covering letter explaining what happened. The worst that can happen is that they ignore it.

torbrex

They would have covered themselves by putting a sign somewhere further back warning about men at work or verge cutting.

George_Michael

torbrex wrote: »

They would have covered themselves by putting a sign somewhere further back warning about men at work or verge cutting.

A sign doesn't mean that someone isn't liable if negligent, and what use is a sign if drivers can't do anything to avoid the area being worked on?

A "men at work" sign is there to advise drivers to be on the lookout for the workers and not to warn them of flying stones, something that would be impossible to see.

torbrex

George_Michael wrote: »

A sign doesn't mean that someone isn't liable if negligent, and what use is a sign if drivers can't do anything to avoid the area being worked on?

A "men at work" sign is there to advise drivers to be on the lookout for the workers and not to warn them of flying stones, something that would be impossible to see.

Something else that is impossible to see is a stone that has been picked up by the wheels of a lorry on the opposite carriageway and propelled forward into the windscreen of your car.

No warning, who has been negligent in that case?

Everyone wants someone to blame and someone else to pay.......!!!!!! happens.

George_Michael

torbrex wrote: »

Something else that is impossible to see is a stone that has been picked up by the wheels of a lorry on the opposite carriageway and propelled forward into the windscreen of your car.

No warning, who has been negligent in that case?

Everyone wants someone to blame and someone else to pay.......!!!!!! happens.

The difference being that you can put measures in place to prevent stones flying into the carriageway due to maintenance work, something that you can't stop totally when it is caused by vehicle wheels.

torbrex

George_Michael wrote: »

The difference being that you can put measures in place to prevent stones flying into the carriageway due to maintenance work, something that you can't stop totally when it is caused by vehicle wheels.

The only 100% sure way is to close the road, I am all for that :T

stugib

torbrex wrote: »

The only 100% sure way is to close the road, I am all for that :T

It's not about being 100% sure though is it, it's about whether this is negligent or not.

It seems reasonably foreseeable that there may be debris picked up and shot out by what they were doing. I don't see any reasonable steps they've taken to avoid harm coming to vehicles within distance of them. If you want to use lorries on the road as an example, this would be more like a lorry carrying a load and not covering it up to prevent things falling out onto other vehicles - or is that just "!!!!!! happens" too?

Though in all honesty, proving a particular stone was to blame and it came from the grass cutter seems to be on a hiding to nothing.

Lorian

OP says it broke a nearside rear window......

I'd be asking for a copy of their risk assessment.

Some time ago I believe a similar issue has been reported here, probably useful contribution in that thread if found.