After accident damage to roads/motorways- who pays?

RATM

Read an article on the BBC site about how on a good few UK motorways and dual carriageways road maintenance has been contracted out to private companies.

The story was about a woman who skidded on split oil and her car ended up on the hard shoulder having done a 180 and was facing the flow of traffic. She has grazed the barriers but no apparent damage was done (according to her). The cops came out and had to stop traffic for a couple of minutes to allow her do a U-turn and be on her merry way.

But after the cops had left engineers from the private company arrived and even though the damage was superficial she still got a bill for £3000.

So was just wondering how it works here as I've never been in that situation. Like if you had an accident on a dual carriegeway (which was your own fault) and smashed up a barrier and left glass over the road way which had to be cleaned up, etc would your insurance company be getting a bill from the NRA or council ? Or is it just picked up by the taxpayer as general road maintenance ?

And has anyone any ideas of what kinds of sums of money are typically involved?

thebiglad

If the driver was identified and correctly recorded they will get a bill which in turn can be passed to their insurer to be paid.

galwayjohn89

If theres oil on the road would the maintenance company not be responsible as hey didn't remove it?

djimi

I know a lad who flattened a lamppost and got a bill from the county council for over a grand I think it was. Not sure if his insurance paid for it or if he did.

thebiglad

Vuzuggu wrote: »

If theres oil on the road would the maintenance company not be responsible as hey didn't remove it?

Maybe if you could prove who left it.

Also consider how many other vehicles may have passed the oil without incident, was the oil the sole cause of the loss of control?

Big Nasty

Friend of mines car went on fire on the M50 a year or so back. Car burnt out, completely destroyed. Council or whoever is responsible for the M50 sent him a bill, can't remember the amount but I think it was close to €10k. His insurance company settled it.

L1011

Councils routinely bill for this when they can identify the person liable for the damage

Entrance to my estate had both a lamp-post put at 30 degrees to the ground , and someone go through the estate wall in the various ice spells recently. Going on rumour around the estate, it would appear that both people contacted the council looking for "compensation" for them taking a corner too hard for the conditions; and ended up with their insurers paying for the repairs!

corktina

In the OPs case, where the engineers arrives after she went on her merry way, they'd have a lot of trouble proving she did the damage

Del2005

corktina wrote: »

In the OPs case, where the engineers arrives after she went on her merry way, they'd have a lot of trouble proving she did the damage

Not really. Most of the UKs motorways and A roads are so full of cameras that they will be able to place her car at the scene. Also the fact that the police responded would mean the location is well known.

And as with most of these things to fight it costs the person more than just paying up, as the company will have solicitors and engineers to beat the band requiring the person to hire these on top of the the time required to fight it.

Pottler

I'll keep this vague etc etc, but I know a man who was towing a piece of plant on a trailer with a van on the M**-van went into a speed wobble, flipped and hit several cars and wiped out about 30m of barrier, scraped the carriageway deeply, and wrecked the hired piece of plant, the trailer and the van.
The M** people billed him for the repairs(it ran to a lot), the hire company billed him for the wrecked piece of plant, the New financed van was a write off as was the €3.5k(financed) trailer. There was also a substancial claim from the other motorists involved.
His insurance company pointed out that he was way over-weight with what he was towing(ran to 4-5 tonnes for plant/trailer apparently), had no trailer category on his licence and declined to pay for the full costs -they covered the third parties cars and injuries but not the M50 bill, the plant hireers bill or his own van/trailer.
Long and the short of it was that it pretty much bust him, he had to sell the house and business to cover the costs:eek: Oh, and he was not me, just a builder I knew - I think he emigrated.
So be careful towing and hitting expensive bits of infrastructure, the bill gets big very quickly.

galwaytt

Pottler wrote: »

I'll keep this vague etc etc, but I know a man who was towing a piece of plant on a trailer with a van on the M**-van went into a speed wobble, flipped and hit several cars and wiped out about 30m of barrier, scraped the carriageway deeply, and wrecked the hired piece of plant, the trailer and the van.
The M** people billed him for the repairs(it ran to a lot), the hire company billed him for the wrecked piece of plant, the New financed van was a write off as was the €3.5k(financed) trailer. There was also a substancial claim from the other motorists involved.
His insurance company pointed out that he was way over-weight with what he was towing(ran to 4-5 tonnes for plant/trailer apparently), had no trailer category on his licence and declined to pay for the full costs -they covered the third parties cars and injuries but not the M50 bill, the plant hireers bill or his own van/trailer.
Long and the short of it was that it pretty much bust him, he had to sell the house and business to cover the costs:eek: Oh, and he was not me, just a builder I knew - I think he emigrated.
So be careful towing and hitting expensive bits of infrastructure, the bill gets big very quickly.

I know a guy towing something who did 18k worth of damage to a Toll booth.......forgot all about the dipper arm, silly man ....

Pottler

galwaytt wrote: »

I know a guy towing something who did 18k worth of damage to a Toll booth.......forgot all about the dipper arm, silly man ....

I know a man who bothered a bridge on the N7 in much the same way- I passed the road-works for the repair crew for a lot of weeks afterwards-the bill must have been colossal.:) Didn't do the excavator much good either, or the artic for that matter..

randy hickey

Pottler wrote: »

I know a man who bothered a bridge on the N7 in much the same way- I passed the road-works for the repair crew for a lot of weeks afterwards-the bill must have been colossal.:) Didn't do the excavator much good either, or the artic for that matter..

I heard that gear was given a decent burial!!!!

mickdw

Pottler wrote: »

I'll keep this vague etc etc, but I know a man who was towing a piece of plant on a trailer with a van on the M**-van went into a speed wobble, flipped and hit several cars and wiped out about 30m of barrier, scraped the carriageway deeply, and wrecked the hired piece of plant, the trailer and the van.
The M** people billed him for the repairs(it ran to a lot), the hire company billed him for the wrecked piece of plant, the New financed van was a write off as was the €3.5k(financed) trailer. There was also a substancial claim from the other motorists involved.
His insurance company pointed out that he was way over-weight with what he was towing(ran to 4-5 tonnes for plant/trailer apparently), had no trailer category on his licence and declined to pay for the full costs -they covered the third parties cars and injuries but not the M50 bill, the plant hireers bill or his own van/trailer.
Long and the short of it was that it pretty much bust him, he had to sell the house and business to cover the costs:eek: Oh, and he was not me, just a builder I knew - I think he emigrated.
So be careful towing and hitting expensive bits of infrastructure, the bill gets big very quickly.

Hard to blame the insurer really. They are though in general bound to pay other party costs so I would have thought that they would have to pay the M50 costs too although they could also decide to chase him to recover all these costs afterwards. Silly man.

Pottler

mickdw wrote: »

Hard to blame the insurer really. They are though in general bound to pay other party costs so I would have thought that they would have to pay the M50 costs too although they could also decide to chase him to recover all these costs afterwards. Silly man.

That's what happened actually - they paid up all third parties but then took him to court to recover costs. In fairness, I've towed similar myself - I've actually banned hiring in our firm now, if we need it we buy it unless its really specialised and won't be used much and is delivered and collected same day. His biggest bill was for loss of hire and replacement costs for the yoke he was towing - it took months to get a replacement and he had to pay the hire costs for that time - all of it.:( To all those out there who hire stuff - have a read, a proper read, of the terms and conditions...

Pottler

randy hickey wrote: »

I heard that gear was given a decent burial!!!!

it was fit for feck all else, in fairness.:D Would have required a bridging loan otherwise, apparently.:D

wonski

Pottler wrote: »

That's what happened actually - they paid up all third parties but then took him to court to recover costs. In fairness, I've towed similar myself - I've actually banned hiring in our firm now, if we need it we buy it unless its really specialised and won't be used much and is delivered and collected same day. His biggest bill was for loss of hire and replacement costs for the yoke he was towing - it took months to get a replacement and he had to pay the hire costs for that time - all of it.:( To all those out there who hire stuff - have a read, a proper read, of the terms and conditions...

Was just about to ask why they didn't pay to m50, when it is third party claim as were injuries and other cars. Thanks for explaining.

I wonder if motorway operators/councils are as quick with settling claims for motorists who had accidents due to poor maintenance, as they are with issuing the bills? Probably not...

Your advice about reading terms and conditions is spot on. This is boring stuff, but better know what you sign up for. Friend of mine paid a lot for a Polo he rented - didn't take extra insurance, and had to pay a lot for what looked like a minor mistake at parking... Main dealer prices for all...
Can only imagine what happenes when you rent plant machinery, crane, or something like that...