Cracked Windscreen

Glassman

doningtonphil said:

  I work in the rail industry repairing brake equipment ?

Is there a chance I would need to organise RAC to recover the car to the Autoglass depot?

If the car is deemed undrivable, could i seek assistance form my insurance company to get a lone car?

You work in the rail industry in a technical role, so you'll understand that the windscreen is a laminated sandwich construction bonded directly to the car. The outer layer of glass has cracked. You still have a PVB layer and second sheet of glass behind it. You are quite safe and as others have suggested, the worst that could happen is that the crack might extent due to the torsional forces in the chassis (or different temperatures either side of the glass).

There is also a question of the windscreen being 'compromised' with the crack. technically, yes but this is more to do with the windscreen being strong enough to withstand the force of airbag deployment in the event of a collision (just like wearing a seatbelt in the first place will reduce the risk of serious injury).

The calibration thing is misleading. The device they're saying needs recalibrating is fine. The windscreen the fit may not be because it (most likely) will not be an original. This blog post explain a little bit more about that:
http://www.glasstecpaul.com/adas-recalibration-after-windscreen-replacement/
My advice is to insist on a genuine part as it will not affect the manufacturer warranty should there be a problem with anything attached/connected to the windscreen. Most of all, don't panic. It's not a critical situation; just a cracked windscreen.