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Road Grit


alnangler
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Today while driving to work -Southend to Lerwick- i happened to pass a council lorry sweeping the road by the Driving Range, hopefully picking up most of the loose chippings from the surface, is it just me or has anyone else had problems with stones being thrown up by other vechiles, this resulted in a broken windscreen last sunday, i have windscreen cover on the inurance but this will still result in me being out of pocket to the tune of £70, can this be claimed back from the Council Roads Dept ? Has any one else had expreince of this.

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Guest Lone Wolf

Yes, I've noticed this on this section and also the section running past the Met office buildings into Lerwick. I have raised it on here, but got no replies, so assumed it was just me. My car is constantly covered in tar splashes that can take hours to get off with soultions that do not scratch the paintwork. Of course these solutions also breakdown any wax coating, so that also needs redoing

 

I had a large stone hit my windscreen near Quarff, it chipped it, but not enough to cause a replacement. My wheels now show a significant number of chips and scratches, whereas as previously they were near blemish free. The surfaces were only recovered a few months back and they have completely broken down in a matter of weeks. They are a disgrace and I would certainly try and recover your losses; I might follow suit

 

No doubt the roads will need redoing properly in the very near future as they'll become dangerously slippy and so cause more hold-ups on the road.

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Speak to your Insurers and if need be, your Insurers' free Legal Helpline. Most insurance companies usually try to recover what they pay out to you anyway from the 'perpetrator'.

 

However, as for getting your excess back from the SIC, it is usually the case that only if a Local Authority was already put on notice would you have a leg to stand on. For example, if you saw a huge pothole of say 3' across and 1' deep, phoned up/e-mailed in and reported it, then 2 months later your car sustained damage, then you would probably get all your expenses paid, including the excess. Courts usually expect people to put Local Authorities on notice and then they are given a reasonable amount of time to rectify the defect/repair the road (Edit: Or even just put up a warning sign)

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tbh its not the councils fault if there is a loose stone on the road ? mabye you are at fault for driving to close or tailgating the car infront on a road that has been recently chipped, stones get flicked up the whole time cant go blaming the council, just grit your teeth and pay the £70 or mabye you shoulda followed the car that did flicked the stone up and gotten money from them. but just drive a little farther away from the vehicle infront and sure youl be fine.

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Guest posiedon

Up until last winter my wife and I had been driving (collectively) for 75 years without a cracked windscreen, last year the "lumps" in the grit seemed to be bigger than usual, I had two windscreen replacements (£70 excess each) and my wife had one (£60 excess) in the space of two months.

All three vehicles that threw up the stones were coming towards us.

 

Regardless of what the insurance companies say about windscreen replacement not effecting your no claims we were both given much higher quotes to renew, we both switched companies because of this.

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Guest Lone Wolf

I don't think the stones being thrown up are road grit. It is the road surface itself. My car is frequently covered in small splashes of tar when travelling these sections, indicating it's the road surface that is breaking down.

 

A few months ago the sections of road in question were are relaid (around Quarff and the south run into Lerwick). If you look at these sections now the top surface has all worn smooth in the places where tyres contact the road. Road surfaces should last many years, perhaps a decade. These surfaces of these newly laid sections have broken down in months. The surface adhesion has obviously not worked and they are breaking down badly. It is this that is being kicked up by vehicles and cracking windscreens, chipping the fronts of vehicles, leaving wheels badly scarred and covering vehicles in tar spots.

 

The council should be doing something about this and all those that have had their vehicles damaged in some way should be recompensed by them.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Not much use to you now, but ask about protetcted no claims bonus the next time you insure your car. I think that mine allows for two claims in three years, so I have used up one of my lives on a cracked windscreen. There were no other cars around at the time, only a crow flying above the car - no really! I was left with something akin to a bullet hole in the window. Could have been one of those SVS snipers or less likely a local taking a pot-shot. I know that many are not keen on us sooth-moothers, but perhaps that is taking it too far!

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Not much use to you now, but ask about protetcted no claims bonus the next time you insure your car.!

 

big con in my opinion because you still have to answer yes to the question 'Have you had any claims in the last 5 years?' to which you have to say yes....then the price goes up.

 

Plus generally a windscreen claim doesn't affect your no claims total.

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Guest Lone Wolf

Totally agree Shetlandcars, I have protected no claims with 2 claims in 3 years allowed, but these are 'allowed' and still have to be identified when you ask for a quote at the stage where it asks for "claims in the last 5 years". Putting none would invalidate your insurance.

If your no claims years have been previously protected, insurance companies will honour that protection and your collected no claims years, but your premium will be 'loaded' for a few years

 

Also windscreens claims do not usually affect your no claims

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