Council Gritters!

mopardave

mopardave

150 Kombi Manual
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T6 Legend
Coming home from my parents tonight......I saw satan himself.....driving a gritter! I swear, I've never seen/felt such violent gritting! Right, I know the roads need gritting.....if they don't grit people complain. If they do grit, people who love their cars/vans complain.....ya can't please everyone. Tonight though.....my god.....the grit was hitting my windscreen! The spray pattern was set to "vindictive b*****d" mode.....it was high and brutal covering both sides of the road. I can't imagine what it'll done to my bonnet/offside of van? Trouble is it's filthy so it's hard to tell. I'm going to contact Bradford Council about it.....anyone got any advice?:mad:
 
Yeah. Don't waste your time.
Last year I went past a gritter on the M6 and it chipped my screen.
I contacted the council, only to be told that the lumps of grit shatter on impact and wouldn't of caused the damage I claimed.
I suspect that most councils get many calls and emails of complaints about gritters causing stone chips and damage, and it's a standard response to just fob you off. Just like when I complained about a bent wheel on my wife's Mini from a huge pot hole, and they just ignored my email and never called me back about the issue.
I would of liked to deduct the cost of repairs from my council tax bill, but I'm sure they'd of got in contact then.
 
This is what Darlington's finest did to my front bumper a couple of weeks ago. Gritter coming the other direction and I had nowhere to go. Instead of the usual sound of grit hitting the panels it made a loud thud noise. It must have been throwing out boulders as that is a deep groove in the middle - if it had hit a pedestrian it would have seriously injured them.

DSC_0117[1].JPG
 
What do you expect them to do, close the road while it's being done? If people drove a bit more sensibly when it was cold it wouldn't need doing so often but it seems that when people have a crash it is everyone's fault except their own so the roads have to be plastered in it.

Don't get me wrong I don't like grit flicked at my car or van but if I use it on the road I accept that it will pick up chips etc over time.

I drive a towed gritter around business parks, I listen for the 'tinkle' as vehicles pass me and I know its working :D
 
4motion said:
What do you expect them to do, close the road while it's being done? If people drove a bit more sensibly when it was cold it wouldn't need doing so often but it seems that when people have a crash it is everyone's fault except their own so the roads have to be plastered in it.

Don't get me wrong I don't like grit flicked at my car or van but if I use it on the road I accept that it will pick up chips etc over time.

I drive a towed gritter around business parks, I listen for the 'tinkle' as vehicles pass me and I know its working :D
Click to expand...
So it's ok for grit to bounce off someone's windscreen is it? Surely there's something wrong if it's doing that? If you read my post again, you might see that I accept it as a necessary evil.....but I've never seen anything as aggressive as that. Nice that you should get a bizarre kick out of your grit pinging off other peoples' paintwork though. :(
 
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They are all like that, sure they don't care about other drivers @Tourershine you should have taken a photo of the pothole that caused the damage, far as I know if it is unreported they are liable to pay for the damage to your car
 
Roadrunner said:
They are all like that, sure they don't care about other drivers @Tourershine you should have taken a photo of the pothole that caused the damage, far as I know if it is unreported they are liable to pay for the damage to your car
Click to expand...
If it’s unreported they won’t pay up, as they didn’t know. Even if they did know, good look trying to get them to part with any cash.
 
Roadrunner said:
They are all like that, sure they don't care about other drivers @Tourershine you should have taken a photo of the pothole that caused the damage, far as I know if it is unreported they are liable to pay for the damage to your car
Click to expand...

Photos of the hole and the damage to the wheel were sent to the council, but they didn't even respond. Funnily enough the hole was fixed shortly afterwards though.
 
I sent the pictures with an email asking for the councils claims department contact details, and I didn't get a reply, then to be honest I forgot about it till this thread started.
 
Few years back I got head on grit blasted on my KTM.
It bloody hurt !

Me doing 30 ish and the gritter probably the same coming towards me.
Serves me right I suppose for being out on the bike all weather.

I very much doubt you’d get any kind of compensation though, they’re out doing good apparently.
 
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