My car was damaged by a toll barrier

NatCus

I was driving through the Galway to Dublin Toll on the M6 this morning, in the eflow lane. The car in front of me was a good distance away and had gone past the barrier, as I was approaching the barrier it was still up but when i was a couple of meters from it, the light turned red and the barrier came down on top of me. I wasn't travelling fast either. I braked but there was a car close behind me so I couldn't slam on the brakes.

It scraped my bonnet, right side of the windscreen and knocked my wing mirror cover off. Since there was damages to my car, and I was afraid there may have been damages to the barrier i rang eflow to see what to do. Instantly the operator on the line blamed me for being to close and said that the barrier had to come down before the next car (Not True). I requested photos of the incident to be sent to my email, and emailed the N6 concessions about the it.

Apart from the mirror the damages are just surface scrapes. Am I in the wrong? I have money in my Eflow account. Has anything like this happened to anyone else? if so what was the outcome? Had you to pay for damages yourself?

73bc61lyohr0mu

Did it beep and did the sign go green?

NatCus

Hi Jacksie,

I had the radio on, so I'm not sure about the beep, The sign was already green from the car in front and only changed as I was too close to the barrier to react. I use the toll every day getting to and from work, and it's only ever failed twice before, both times it had given plenty time to to exit the Eflow lane and join the normal toll booths.

eusap

Often on that toll the Toll Tags are not read and the barrier closes, i normally drive slower known this. On the few occasions it happened i had enough time to turn off.

Be warned the camera on the lane also covers the speed warning sign so if you were speeding (think its 50km) it will be your own fault and they may ask to pay to repair barrier

KildareP

NatCus wrote: »

I was driving through the Galway to Dublin Toll on the M6 this morning, in the eflow lane. The car in front of me was a good distance away and had gone past the barrier, as I was approaching the barrier it was still up but when i was a couple of meters from it, the light turned red and the barrier came down on top of me. I wasn't travelling fast either. I braked but there was a car close behind me so I couldn't slam on the brakes.

It scraped my bonnet, right side of the windscreen and knocked my wing mirror cover off. Since there was damages to my car, and I was afraid there may have been damages to the barrier i rang eflow to see what to do. Instantly the operator on the line blamed me for being to close and said that the barrier had to come down before the next car (Not True). I requested photos of the incident to be sent to my email, and emailed the N6 concessions about the it.

Apart from the mirror the damages are just surface scrapes. Am I in the wrong? I have money in my Eflow account. Has anything like this happened to anyone else? if so what was the outcome? Had you to pay for damages yourself?

This has happened to me twice (albeit the barrier didn't hit, but it started to come down as I was going under) and on both occasions there was a car right up my rear end.

Presumably they were tail gating hoping to get through under my tag and the barrier tried to stop them.

NatCus

If the barrier comes down to prevent people piggy backing off other peoples tags, that's very dangerous. I almost crashed myself when it happened.

I also have been in similar situations of people being up my ass trying to get through the toll. I always thought it was just impatient drivers but that would make more sense. Thanks for the all replies!

Boscoirl

Happened to me the other day in the limerick tunnel. Luckily there was no damage.

Car in front, which was a good bit in front, Got diverted away to the left. My tag beeped the arrow went green for me. The other car had already exited the lane. Just as I got to the barrier it started to Come down. Hitting the top of the windscreen. I had jumped on the brakes.

Afterwards there was a car on my rear bumper it wasn’t there when I entered the express lane. So I don’t know if they flew up behind me to tailgate or they caught up with me due to me braking.

NatCus

I'm actually shocked how common this seems, I found another thread on here about the same problem. Looks like the repairs will be coming out of my pocket. A leaving cert student could make a better system for their Engineering project!

TheRiverman

Not blaming the original poster,but the speed some people approach the toll barriers is ridiculous,sometimes it's like a race to see who gets there first,ignoring both the 80kph and 50kph on approach.

NatCus

I agree with you completely, with all honesty I always approach slowly (despite other drivers not being happy about it) just in case something like this happened. I just hope I was under 50 by the time I approached the speed sign.

highdef

I would've just slammed on the brakes, even with a car close behind. At the moment of hitting the brakes, you would have been doing no more than 50 - 60 km/h so taking into account your braking distance combined with the reaction speeds and braking distance of the following vehicle, the actual impact speed wouldn't be that great.

I wouldn't be bullied into damaging my own vehicle by hitting third party property just because an numpty behind is either chancing their arm or/and is too stupid to understand the basics of braking distance. Let the numpty drive into you and learn a lesson, both by the experience and through their wallet and perhaps points on their licence for dangerous driving.

By driving into the 3rd party property, you've encountered a lot more hassle for yourself than letting the eejit behind take the flak.

Hope you get sorted though, nonetheless.

disposableFish

Usually this isn't a fault, it's because the car in front of you was dodging the toll ( no-tag guy in front makes sure there's someone behind them and slows until they're not too far. No-tag-guy approaches the barrier which then opens because the tag in the car behind has been picked up. No-tag-guy goes through and the barrier crashes on the car behind).

Liability? You'd have to think that the toll company carry some liability if this is what happened because the whole situation occurred because of their poor practice. On the other hand...if you could have stopped and didn't then that might also make you liable.

Eric Cartman

TheRiverman wrote: »

Not blaming the original poster,but the speed some people approach the toll barriers is ridiculous,sometimes it's like a race to see who gets there first,ignoring both the 80kph and 50kph on approach.

those express lanes work perfectly if youre doing 50, plenty of time for the reader to work, to observe the signs and the barrier to operate correctly. Ive seen them being hit / near hit a few times where speeds well in excess of 50 are happening.

Dravokivich

If I see people queuing up in that Express lane, I just go through a booth instead. Dont want to be caught out by someone looking to skip a measly 2.90 toll. They can sit there.