Gritter damage - Take to court?

Mansize_tissue

Mansize_tissue

Mansize_tissue

Soldato
Joined
20 Mar 2007
Posts
3,095
Location
Norwich
Good day chaps.

Back in November my E39 was victim to a gritter dispensing, what seems to have been, way too course a grit, with way too high a spread. I've got stone chips now on the bonnet, both front wings, all 4 doors, wing mirrors, a few on the roof and a windscreen which is covered in them. I've got 2 quotes for the damage, both within £50 of each other at ~£3700.

My back and fourth with the Council has resulted in them denying negligence, and without proof of which my public liability claim with them for damages is useless.

Either this damage was caused maliciously (I hope not) or was the result of negligence, surely if not it wouldn't have happened?

I drive past gritters all the time, and always slow down. This particular road was 60, I slowed to 30, and still it sounded like gravel was being chucked at my car.


Now I'm left with the choice of giving up, or filing a money claim against them and let the Courts deal with it. Court fees will be around £300 I believe, which I'd rather avoid losing if this case is a total loss.

0rlhocM.jpg
The bumper and half the bonnet isn't stickered due to the amount of chips and time involved.

HUXS1KZ.jpg

BdM7fgy.jpg
 
This is an old car, how can you possibly hope to prove that a gritter caused them?

It sucks but i cant see it being something you could ever prove? :(
 
I'd be taking that to court.

I believe you will need at least one expert statement to help you along though, otherwise as above I don't see how anyone will know if your damage was caused by the grit or not.

You'll need to get a statement at least from someone in trade ( which will mean cost), plenty of pictures, evidence of your correspondence with the council - which hopefully starts very soon after the incident occurred.


Edit...wait I thought the stickers were the damage at first. The chips are so light you may well struggle to convince anyone they are solely from the grit. Start by talking to bodyshops
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the responses so far.

The things that look like leaves are cut-up post it notes pointing at the biggest of the 'fresh' chips from the incident, I forgot to mention that in the OP! The new chips are quite easily identifiable. They are all white (didn't go through to metal), similar sized, and haven't been filled in/rusted like the very few existing ones.

The trouble is, as pointed out, proving this was caused by the gritter! I had a witness in the car who agrees with me that the noise when the gritter went past was shocking, and saw the damage afterwards.

I followed said gritter, took photos (unclear, raining) and got the registration. The council then confirmed the route and agrees that a gritter was there at the time I quoted.


I may have to see a solicitor to see if this is a case worth fighting. I just find it odd that the point the Council are really pushing is the lack of proof of negligence on there part, but what else is the damage if not proof of negligence (this is assuming it has been confirmed to have been caused by the gritter)?
 
I would think your chances here are very slim. I have a car of a similar age to yours, and I could take photos showing thousands of little white chips all over the front and sides, as well as a few nasty ones on the windscreen.

I'm not doubting what you've said in any way, but you have to see it from the council's point of view. I suspect that if we compared photos of our cars, the marks on my car (which has accumulated chips as one would expect for 10 years/130k of use) would look extremely similar to the marks on your car, so if they allow your claim, they open the floodgates for everyone else to claim.

Even if you could somehow get an expert opinion that the stonechips were recent, they don't know you haven't parked it next to a building site or driven it down a gravel road the day before.

I do sympathise, but I think in this case there's very little you can do.
 
The gritter was presumably displaying flashing beacons? - these are there as a warning, of a hazard, flying grit namely, you know the gritter throws out grit and the advice, however unrealistic in the real world, is to keep well back.

You took it onto yourself to pass and this is the result, and, the resulting damage looks remarkably like a heavily stone chipped old 5 series which as far as there concerned, would look like that anyway!!

In sure I sound harsh, not ment to, just looking at it from the perspective of the councils legal boffins and tbh what I'd guess a few non e39 worshiping forums would conclude I fear.

I wouldn't waste any further time on this,whilst understanding your annoyance, I honestly think your peeing in the wind here!


Fwiw I punctured an inter cooler on a then new HGV having passed a gritter, Scania even diagnosed grit being the cause, no claim was made as it would have been impossible to prove it wasn't some other random peice or peices of road grit thrown up by any other passing vehicle, I was even moaned at for passing the thing myself, that same person would also, no doubt,have moaned had I sat behind the thing & subsequently been late for my delivery!!!

Can't win.
 
Last edited:
Scania said:
The gritter was presumably displaying flashing beacons? - these are there as a warning, of a hazard, flying grit namely, you know the gritter throws out grit and the advice, however unrealistic in the real world, is to keep well back.
Click to expand...

Have you forgotten which side of the road we drive on? The damage is on the drivers side so for it to get hit he must have been heading towards the gritter rather than overtaking it.
 
Jez said:
This is an old car, how can you possibly hope to prove that a gritter caused them?

It sucks but i cant see it being something you could ever prove? :(
Click to expand...

My car is 10 years older and doesn't have any chips bar a couple on the front. I can't see how they can say that it wasn't the gritter, nobody has that many chips on their car, especially on the screen and roof?
 
Gribs said:
Have you forgotten which side of the road we drive on? The damage is on the drivers side so for it to get hit he must have been heading towards the gritter rather than overtaking it.
Click to expand...

He says all four doors in the OP, I think it will be difficult to prove all sides of the car were damaged from a gritter regardless of what direction he passed it.
 
Court fee is £100.

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/court-fees

Burden of proof in a civil claim is "on the balance of probability"

You need a quote from the body shops which says "To repair what appears to be an inordinate number of fresh stone chips of similar size and velocity with relatively even distribution and appearing exclusively on (are of panel xyz) which appear to have been mechanically ejected rather than ficked up by other traffic"

Use moneyclaimonline and file a claim to make good the damage caused by the gritter. You have to be succinct with your claim, short particulars only - such as "The Claimant was driving his motor vehicle, namely a BMW with mark C830PRA on the A614 between x and y. The Claimant noticed an opposing gritter lorry and reduced speed and moved to the nearside, but it sprayed grit over the vehicle which caused a horrendous clatter. The Claimant could immediately see the windscreen was chipped and stopped to inspect and found much of the car damaged.. The Claimant claims that the Defendant failed in it's duty of care and due diligence while carrying out the task of spreading de-icing salt on the road and on this occasion. The Claimant claims the cost of making good the damage caused by the gritting lorry."

Don't assume the judge loves cars as much as you.

Get evidence - don't rely on any hearsay or assumption.

Good luck.
 
Last edited:
God damn it I hate gritters, if I get caught near one the noise makes me cringe. I hope you get somewhere but it's worth perusing if you feel you can make a good case.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom