Stones hitting car on the Motorway whose liable?

jimbobaloobob

travelling on the motorway the other night, friend of mine had the car sprayed with stones, its thought (by the gardai who came out) that the stones came from the central reservation and are used to slow cars going out of control

(not sure of that myself)

the stones flew and caused 3 golf ball size cracks to the windscreen and between 13-20 dents to the body work or the bonet,roof and drivers wing side of car.

my question is that even though insurance will cover this work isnt that going to effect the no claims? is it possible that the NRA or whoever is responsible for the motorway are somewhat liable?

Thanks for any help in advance

MagicSean

The stones just flew out on their own?

coylemj

Seanbeag1 wrote: »

The stones just flew out on their own?

I think what he's saying is that the guy in front drifted into the centre and sprayed him with the stones.

OP, I've never seen a bed of loose stones in the central reservation of a motorway, normally at the right-hand edge of the overtaking lane there's a broken line of slightly raised strips which causes a very noticeable rumble in the car when you cross it.

Are you sure there wasn't roadworks going on?

BrianD

It's road debris - were you close to the vehicle in front of you?. Don't think the liability rests with anybody.

I noticed quite of this kind of stone in the hard shoulder in places on the M9 when I was travelling down there a week ago.

Tefral

In motorways and dual carriage ways where there is no concrete barrier and its the old thing where the wire and the grass divides the sides there is defo a line of stones, normally you cant see them because grass encroaches on the stones but the stones actually cover a drain that takes off the surface water

jimbobaloobob

firstly it wasnt me or my car in this incident.

Friend of mine was travelling west from dublin approx 2km from Naas.
as they were driving along debris came from the opposite direction on the motorway.

There were at least 3 cars effected by this. To the extent that they all have multiple dents to bonnets, roofs and cracked windscreens.

Personally ive never seen gravel or any kind between lanes of the motorway and my presumption would have been that it came from a vehicle going the opposite direction.
However it was the traffic corps that suggested that the debris would have come from the area between the opposing motorway lanes.

Victor

There are often sections of hardcore between the asphalt and the grass surface as drainage. I've not seen the gravel beds they have on race tracks on public roads - here we use grass medians for that. You do see a lot of loose gravel on the less traffic parts of roads, some of it quite large.

I can't see how a vehicle on the other carriageway would throw up that quantity (and size) of gravel. Did anyone inspect the other side of the median?

I think you might have to write this off to experience. Insurance companies may look at this somewhat benevolently (you will likely need a report from the Traffic Corp to corroborate) but the minimum on the policy is likely to make it not worth your while.

seamus

It's road debris. In order to prove that anyone else was liable, you would have to show that they failed in some duty of care towards other road users. I have seen these gravel medians, their purpose is to slow a vehicle down if it hits the median, apparently it's very effective with HGVs.

Ultimately you would need to track down the vehicle which caused the stones to come flying (it could also have been stones falling from a quarry vehicle), otherwise it's a waste of time really. If the stones were kicked up from the main roadway, then it's tough **** really*, but if the other vehicle veered into the median, then you could strictly hold them at fault since you shouldn't end up in the median unless you've screwed up.
There's also a possibility that some kids were hiding on the median, scattering stones at passing vehicles.

* When I'm cycling along, I often hear stones clattering off cars which have been kicked up from my wheels. While I do my best to avoid gravel for my own sake, it's physically impossible to avoid all gravel, so debris kicked up by vehicle is not my fault, as it's out of my control

stargazer 68

Unfortunately nobody is liable. I wrecked my car wheel on a pot hole which was full of rain water so I didnt see it. Seemingly the council are only liable if they have attempted to repair the hole and didnt do the job properly!! :eek:

234

Dovies wrote: »

Unfortunately nobody is liable. I wrecked my car wheel on a pot hole which was full of rain water so I didnt see it. Seemingly the council are only liable if they have attempted to repair the hole and didnt do the job properly!! :eek:

This is true but it is different from the OPs situation where there was an actual action by an individual, rather than just the absence of action that characterises non-feasence.