Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

Was driving down the A30 today, between Basingstoke and Winchester. I was following a car in the fast lane and suddenly got my windscreen literally sprayed by large gravel/small rocks. I'm talking maybe 10-20 impacts. The has resulted in 1 big chip (luckily not in the MOT failure zone) and another 5 or 6 tiny chips.

The thing is, right after it happened, as I went over the brow of the hill, a frikkin road sweeper is in the fast lane, sweeping the verges, or something else ridiculous. As I go past it, I can see gravel flying into the road form it's apparent cleaning. Muppets! So they are clearly to blame. I have the time and date and saw the culprit.

So do you reckon I can phone up the council and complain and get them to pay for the windscreen repair? If they were resurfacing, they would have a speed limit in place to prevent zone chip problems, but they didn't. We were all doing 70, and the car in front was spraying us with rocks.

Re: Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

no, but good luck if you try

Re: Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

If the individual chips are small enough to be covered by a £1 coin you can generally get them fixed for free via your insurance policy.

Far less hassle than trying to get money out of Hants County Council....

Re: Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

What he said ^^^^

Re: Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

Really?

Re: Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

Yeah. Gonna get onto the insurance company tomorrow and see if they cover free screen repairs. I know I'd be flogging a dead horse trying to blame the council, but when they do something stupid like that, it does make you wonder.

Re: Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

I would check with your insurance first as a general enquiry as not all companies pay for repairs, admittedly the majority do but not always and considering you have multiple chips this may affect the outcome.
Just a word of caution before you go dashing off or phone a windscreen company.

As I was typing you seemed to cover the point I raised

Re: Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

Mmmm - road sweeper 'in the fast lane' ?
Salt/grit spreader maybe?


Would you be one of the first to complain that the stupid skinflint local council haven't gritted the roads again?

I feel like putting local authorities back on my Christmas card list, ppor things. They can't do anything right!

Re: Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

Or get a new windscreen for £50, like what we did ;)

Re: Windscreen chipped. Can I blame the council?
 

lol. No, 100% was not a road gritter. It was one of these ...

http://ravo-sweeping-machines.co.uk/...ad-sweeper.jpg

In the gutter, sweeping up debris from the side of the road, and flinging half of it into the road behind it, with one of those "change lane" lorries following behind it, with the flashing neon sign. Definitely not a gritter!