CLS

On my way to work tonight I passed a gritter on the motorway. It felt as though the car (DBM) had been shotgunned!
Later on the way home this morning I saw another coming towards me. I pulled over and stopped I couldnt get away and again the shotgun effect took over.
There doesn't appear to be any damage but I've only been able to examine my car under artificial light. Are the council liable if they have damaged my car?
I am not a happy buuny

Mossman

Too blooming right!

I get absolutely mad about this too! It happened to me last year and the year before that!

Can we give the council some stick or what!?

Jon

RichB

Unfortunately the councils dont give a toss, my dad had the same with his brand new Honda Prelude, shotgun all over the frontspoiler and bonnet, £800 repair.
Wrote numerous letters with no luck, even wrote to 'Honest John' from the Telegraph or Times who also wrote to them. Still nothing.

Apparently the trucks are 'moddified' so they can cover both sides of the road at the same time which apparently they were not designed to do...

Keep writing snotty letters, good luck but don't get your hopes up too high.

barstewards...

howardb

I realise it's probably a little more complicated than this, but can't you just find out the councils insurers and submit a claim against them?

Chris L

Yeah it is a bit of a pain..

Mind you, on the flip slide, it beats spinning off the road on black ice.

Chris

Moss

What gets me is the spreading mechanism is about the same height as the bottom of the windscreen on the car! Surely it would be a simple fix to have a lower level spreader, so the grit hits the road directly and bounces along the surface rather than your bonnet??

WALKER

Yep me to.......i got peppered on the way in to work this morning

NOT IMPRESSED!!!


Paul

Nimbus

This has got to be one of the worst aspects of Winter driving.

Motoring along some country lane on some sharp Winters night. Then in the distance you spot those flashing yellow lights advincing towards you, with a tail of headlights behind (cos no one wants to risk overtaking) and suddenly you realise it's a gritter. You look for somewhere to pull over, or a road to exit onto, but there's nowhere to go and you just know your car is going to get peppered with possible paint and glass damage. So, you move over as far left as possible and grit your teeth (no pun intended) as the wall of grit comes towards you....

Makes me shuddr just thinking about it...

DrEvil

.. yeah imagine how bad it feels when your in something like an MX5 an this happens, the bl**dy grittin' mechanism is roof height (well all but!)

Well, if I see one in the scoob, I'll be 180'ing it.. er.. I mean U turn, and millenium falcon stylin' it to safety...

Alex

Neil Reay

It has happened to me twice on the same stretch of motorway recently - M5 jcn 1. Seems to be no paint damage but I hosed the car down afterwards to make sure the scoob didn't disintegrate on me overnight.

Neil.

Tom Evans

We too got peppered coming back from Uni. yesterday evening. Asked my dad and he thinks that you can't claim for insurance.

Moss, if the spreader was made lower then surely the grit would not be spread out as far. Could be wrong though.

IainT

The same thing happened to me the first day I picked up my car. Passed a gritter in the middle lane of the M4 and got shotblasted by large rocks of grit. After a few letters to the council and the contractors themselves, they basically told me to p*#ss off as I had no proof, (apart from the photos of stone chips on a 1 day old car!)
The gritters are supposed to be screened so only very tiny particles come out, but I'm sure we've all see large chunks come flying out!
Just keep perstering the councils and you never know, someone may listen

owbow

you guys want to try passing one on a motorbike with an open face lid!!! that's painful i tell ya!!

Owain.

Moss

Tom,

On the farm we have used Vicon Varispreaders in the past, which are practically the same thing as gritters. I can confidently tell you that the distance objects the size of road grit get hurled is far greater than the width of any road! On a road (as opposed to a field) they will go further still, because the grit bounces. They are also adjustable and spread can be governed fairly accurately. The trouble is it takes time, practice and experimentation to get it right. The council boys just fit the equipment and go out and wreck people's paintwork! I think there's money to be made out there developing a DBM friendly gritter?

Moss

owbow

LOL you just reminded me... years ago my dad, God rest his soul, was driving a tractor with a spreader on the back through Llandovery, and he pushed his bag onto the lever for the PTO shaft by accident, turning the spreader on, (full of manky mouldy orange chicken poo) all through the town centre!!!

there was this copper in a moggy 1000 trying to pass him for a mile or so but he couldn't see through all the shi*e on the screen!!! wicked!

Owain McRae

buddy

Hi,
Tried suing the council myself once,over a similar incident, BIG TIME lawyers theve got you need to be loaded in case you lose . I couldnt take the risk. you know what i mean dude!

CLS

Checked the car over today, Some tiny chips in my MY00 DBM but I'll never prove it will I
Happily the wax wizard products I use seem to cover a multitude of sins

I was thinking of writing in to the BBC about it but I have a feeling that they'd blame the conservative party. It is official that everything IS their fault having being in power for XXX number of years
So that must be true

Dream Weaver

One of my Dads mates bought a Mk2 MR2 when they were first out (I think he had an H-Reg). He only had it a few months when he had to pass a gritter on a narrowish road. He stopped along side them, wound down his window, and firmly told them that he would be gutted if they chipped his new car.

They promptly turned the spreader on full and filled the interior of his car. ****!!!