Claim from Council for cracked windscreen due to new road surface

littlemiss19

Hi,

On my way to work, I had to drive up a hill that has a new road surface being fitted. There was some grit and I think this chipped and cracked my windscreen. The size of the crack is 40 cm. 

I've checked my car insurance and I am covered and my no claims bonus will not be affected, however, the excess is £550. My car is a Honda Jazz 2009 so I don't think the windscreen will cost this much. 

So, does anyone know if it would be possible to claim from the local council? I see that I can claim for potholes but do not mention renewing road surfaces and flying grit. I've checked and the road is managed by the council and not the Highway Department.

Many thanks,

Little Miss

forgotmyname

£550 windscreen excess are you sure?  Winscreen for my car costs over £1000 and the excess is between £75 and £125.
£550 the total policy excess not windscreen excess?

How did this grit fly up off the road and damage your screen?  Was it a council vehicle that caused it?

p00hsticks

Were there any signs giving a temporary maximum speed limit / warning of re-gritting ? If there were I expect this would absolve the council / Highways agency from any fault.
  
How close were you to the vehicle in front ? (as presumably there had to have been something in front of you to throw up the grit to hit your windscreen )

prettyandfluffy

littlemiss19 said:

Hi,

On my way to work, I had to drive up a hill that has a new road surface being fitted. There was some grit and I think this chipped and cracked my windscreen. The size of the crack is 40 cm. 

I've checked my car insurance and I am covered and my no claims bonus will not be affected, however, the excess is £550. My car is a Honda Jazz 2009 so I don't think the windscreen will cost this much. 

So, does anyone know if it would be possible to claim from the local council? I see that I can claim for potholes but do not mention renewing road surfaces and flying grit. I've checked and the road is managed by the council and not the Highway Department.

Many thanks,

Little Miss

That looks like the overall policy excess rather than the excess for glass cover which is usually around £75.  If you can't confirm this from the policy documents ring your insurers and ask.  As to claiming from the council, I doubt you will succeed.

Bigphil1474

If they were surface dressing with that horrible grey gritty surface rubbish, then they normally put temporary 20mph limits on the road which everybody ignores. Not sure you'll get far with the council unless you can prove you and the car that caused the grit to damage your windscreen were travelling at the speed limit. 

A dummy quote on UK car glass comes up with £440 for a replacement windscreen fitted. See if your local garage can do it cheaper or go through insurance.

DullGreyGuy

Most Glass cover is no excess for a repair and a c£75 for a replacement so think you are looking at the wrong part. 

If they are resurfacing the road you'd expect there to be signs warning of loose grit in which case its likely your own fault for not driving according to the road conditions.

Nasqueron

Bigphil1474 said:

If they were surface dressing with that horrible grey gritty surface rubbish, then they normally put temporary 20mph limits on the road which everybody ignores. Not sure you'll get far with the council unless you can prove you and the car that caused the grit to damage your windscreen were travelling at the speed limit. 

A dummy quote on UK car glass comes up with £440 for a replacement windscreen fitted. See if your local garage can do it cheaper or go through insurance.

If these surfaces are done properly and the road is closed properly for a day or two, they're really good, the problem of course is that they do them in the morning, then unblock the road later in the day and everything goes to pot. I used to go to work on one country road which is a semi-blind crossroads (one with the old STOP sign, as they can't change it so the give way triangle can be use) and they did the surface in the morning after I passed (on my bike!), on my way home, the new surface was already worn down to the bare bones as cars had accelerated to pull out of the junction and did a bit of wheel spin.

facade

Nasqueron said:

Bigphil1474 said:

If they were surface dressing with that horrible grey gritty surface rubbish, then they normally put temporary 20mph limits on the road which everybody ignores. Not sure you'll get far with the council unless you can prove you and the car that caused the grit to damage your windscreen were travelling at the speed limit. 

A dummy quote on UK car glass comes up with £440 for a replacement windscreen fitted. See if your local garage can do it cheaper or go through insurance.

If these surfaces are done properly and the road is closed properly for a day or two, they're really good, the problem of course is that they do them in the morning, then unblock the road later in the day and everything goes to pot. I used to go to work on one country road which is a semi-blind crossroads (one with the old STOP sign, as they can't change it so the give way triangle can be use) and they did the surface in the morning after I passed (on my bike!), on my way home, the new surface was already worn down to the bare bones as cars had accelerated to pull out of the junction and did a bit of wheel spin.

The latest bodge is called "Lock Chip"

They put down some normal bitumen and sprinkle (very) liberally with large chips, then leave it a few days for the cars to throw most of it into deep piles near the gutter, and remove it completely from high trafficked areas. Then a quick sweep after about 5 days and leave for even more to be removed.

Then a couple of days later another sweep and then spray with bitumen that dries in 20 minutes to secure any remaining chips down.

The final result isn't too bad- where there were any chips left, nice and slippery where they are missing........

It is completely impassible (in a car that you own- PCP cars throw up a right cloud of dust) for a week until the quick drying cover is put down, because the large stones kick up at 5mph or less and knock any "paint" off the underside of your car, all ready for the cheap rocksalt that they put down in Winter.

It isn't very pleasant to walk across either, and I wouldn't rate your chances on 2 wheels...

To someone of little brain like myself, it would seem more sensible to use the 20 minute bitumen in the first place, roll the chips down, then go and have lunch and put another 20 minute layer over the top and it would be done with minimal damage to vehicles and inconvenience, but what would I know....

Apparently it is much cheaper than the £100 or so a square metre it would cost to do it properly.

An average residential street (5m wide) would be around £1000 per 2m to surface properly.

Nasqueron

facade said:

Nasqueron said:

Bigphil1474 said:

If they were surface dressing with that horrible grey gritty surface rubbish, then they normally put temporary 20mph limits on the road which everybody ignores. Not sure you'll get far with the council unless you can prove you and the car that caused the grit to damage your windscreen were travelling at the speed limit. 

A dummy quote on UK car glass comes up with £440 for a replacement windscreen fitted. See if your local garage can do it cheaper or go through insurance.

If these surfaces are done properly and the road is closed properly for a day or two, they're really good, the problem of course is that they do them in the morning, then unblock the road later in the day and everything goes to pot. I used to go to work on one country road which is a semi-blind crossroads (one with the old STOP sign, as they can't change it so the give way triangle can be use) and they did the surface in the morning after I passed (on my bike!), on my way home, the new surface was already worn down to the bare bones as cars had accelerated to pull out of the junction and did a bit of wheel spin.

The latest bodge is called "Lock Chip"

They put down some normal bitumen and sprinkle (very) liberally with large chips, then leave it a few days for the cars to throw most of it into deep piles near the gutter, and remove it completely from high trafficked areas. Then a quick sweep after about 5 days and leave for even more to be removed.

Then a couple of days later another sweep and then spray with bitumen that dries in 20 minutes to secure any remaining chips down.

The final result isn't too bad- where there were any chips left, nice and slippery where they are missing........

It is completely impassible (in a car that you own- PCP cars throw up a right cloud of dust) for a week until the quick drying cover is put down, because the large stones kick up at 5mph or less and knock any "paint" off the underside of your car, all ready for the cheap rocksalt that they put down in Winter.

It isn't very pleasant to walk across either, and I wouldn't rate your chances on 2 wheels...

To someone of little brain like myself, it would seem more sensible to use the 20 minute bitumen in the first place, roll the chips down, then go and have lunch and put another 20 minute layer over the top and it would be done with minimal damage to vehicles and inconvenience, but what would I know....

Apparently it is much cheaper than the £100 or so a square metre it would cost to do it properly.

An average residential street (5m wide) would be around £1000 per 2m to surface properly.

Oh absolutely, when I cycle on those roads, if I absolutely must due to the same issues with paint chips on a bike that costs more than a lot of cars, it's down the tyre tracks as the edges are just like riding offroad on gravel from how deep it is. On roads where the lock chip is done and it has time to set (particularly if a low use road) it's nice to ride on and gives you better grip than tarmac. My old job they did the road by the office, it was done in the morning and open before closing time and you'd just get morons hooning it down at 30 and you could hear tonnes of bits of grit pinging off your car