Safe Speed Forums

This one happened to me recently..

Tootling along the motorway .. minding my own business when ..

CRRRRR_A - C_CK!

a nail or stone .hit the windscreen like a dammed bullet

So.. it was not directly in my line of sight..

But .remember .. I will have behaved according to the law anyway

..but please tell me what you think I did and why.

Most importantly - what is the law and outcome on cracked windscreens - which dictate your action if some lousy "agency" fails to sweep roads.. ggrrrr - CUMBRIA ... grrrrr!

Good job it's insured then

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Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

I'm assuming you got over your initial shock and carried on? I had the same thing happen to me once, gave me a hell of a fright and put a crack across the driver's side from about half way up the "A" pillar diagonally down to the middle of the screen. Other than making me jump a mile, there were no other problems. It was daylight and I just finished my journey and called out a wndscreen repair company.

Was it a toughened windscreen rather than a laminated one? These are rare nowadays but I gather they require a VERY different technique! (and a lot of Elastoplasts)!

Not sure about this, but I seem to remember that any crack in a screen not obscuring the drivers field of vision, if it over 10 cm long, requires the screen to be replaced straight away, and driving on could lead to a penalty for driving a vehicle in an unroadworthy condition; ergo, pull over and ring Highway Windscreens et al...

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Aquila



Licat volare si super tergum aquila volat...

This happend to me a few days after getting my new car

I guess the answer you aren't looking for is...
Get scared and stay scared all the way to London. Work all day, drive home scared. Go to work the next day(s). Go campling at the weekend. Come home. Have a wash. Finally have some time to do something about it. Get annoyed that it took them 2 hours to replace the windscreen when they said on the phone 1 hour 30 minutes. Go for a long walk. Drive with shiney new windscreen to garage to get a new key registered to the car. Narrowly avoid thumping the person who tells me that it will take 2 HOURS to do this. Another long walk.

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Andrew.

I rang the windscreen company only to find that they would have to fly one in from japan, 5 days!!!

I had a crack top to bottom and one traveling sidways and 400 miles to get home.

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Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

I'm not sure about this one either - and several broken windscreen have been my only insurance claims in decades. However IIRC there are three zones. Zone A is usually marked out on the windscreen and is roughly a foot-wide band down the swept area in the driver's line of sight. Any damage greater than (IIRC) 10mm in that area is an MOT failure, and so presumably it will be unlawful to drive with more damage in that area than that. Zone B is the swept area not in zone A. IIRC, you are allowed damage of about two inches there. Anything outside the swept area is not an MOT failure and so, presumably, allowed under law.

IG said the crack was not in his line of sight, so I assume not in zone A. So, if the crack was smaller than 2" or outside the swept area, I suspect IG would have carried on, but I'm not sure whether he'd have stopped on the hard shoulder and phoned for a new windscreen if the damage was "more serious" or left the motorway at the next opportunity and driven to a repairer. Pragmatically, I would do the latter (unless the damage seriously impaired visibility) because it's safer to drive a few miles with a cracked screen than it is to wait on the hard shoulder.

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Will

Cheers Mole - It was a shock.

Was not in line of sight and would have scraped a MOT on that basis. But had it been in my line of sight - on the spot fine and points for a "defective vehicle"

I was able to drive to nearest windscreen repairer and get it fixed

Had this been more serious though - I would have either phoned for the AA to tow me off the motorway to repairer.


If not in these services and remaining on the Hard shoulder would have proved dangerous - then I would have contacted police and arranged for escort - this avoids "on the spot fine" as you have not been stopped driving with defect - you asked them to assist your safe passage to place to repair the defect"

A 5 day wait for a screen and a long journey sounds dire. I'd be checking my policy as am covered for windscreen repairs. Policy gives me a courtesy car .. even for a windscreen repair.

_________________
Take with a chuckle or a grain of salt
Drive without COAST and it's all your own fault!

A SMILE is a curve that sets everything straight (P Diller).

A Smiley Per post
FINES USfor our COAST!

Approach love and cooking with reckless abandon - but driving with a smile and a COAST calm mind.

Points and fine for a defective vehicle? That seems a bit cruel! I know that at night, a crack in the driver's immediate field of view can really scatter the light badly but during the day they're not the end of the world! Obviously a big "brick" that turned a substantial area of screen to "mush" would be a different matter but a crack???? Surely you don't go round pulling and fining people for having too many dead bugs on their windscreens? I'll bear this in mind if it ever happens again because I'd never have thought to ask for a police escort in a million years under these circumstances!

So you're driving down the motorway with a crack in the middle of the windscreen on your mobile phone calling the police for an escort.... And that's all legal?!

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Andrew.

I had one a few years back. En route to work on the M6, I came up behind a lorry that I quickly realised was dropping stones. I suddenly realised 2 were coming at me and swerved half into the next lane (without looking fortunately no one there) These 2 stones hit the middle of the screen at exactly eye height - would have been precisely in line with my eyes had I not swerved. 40 more stones in rapid succession cracked the left side of my screen, SMASHED a headlight, and put over 30stone chips down to the metal over the front of my car!
I stopped to check the damage and call the police (as had other vehicles) but the truck couldn't be found to stop.

Good luck arguing that you needed a tow, for a cracked windscreen. In fact wouldnt have needed a flatbed? (towed=driven) In which case you would be looking at several hours wait on the hard shoulder.

I have had cars fail the MOT on a cracked windscreen, are you saying I should have had it towed to the windscreen repair place?

[/quote]I suddenly realised 2 were coming at me and swerved half into the next lane (without looking fortunately no one there)[/quote] or at least he doesn't think anyone was there, however the poor biker he killed thinks he was there.. :@ you're in a car with VERY strong windscreen, please, I know it's a shock but LOOK BEFORE YOU SWERVE!!!

I've had a brick thrown off a bridge into my coach n/s windscreen, it caused a crack about 1/4 way up and in from n/s bottom, I drove this back to base (approx 10 miles) without passengers on, was this illegal then?? Should I have phoned for a tow? It didn't affect my vision, wasn't a safety issue as the screen is damned strong, so why would I have got points for it?