Winter road maintenance and road traffic accidents
At this time of year driving can become perilous. A combination
of ice, wind, rain, snow, fog and dark, wintry evenings can lead
to hazardous road conditions and car accidents. When you take
your car out on a wintry morning you are more at risk of being
involved in a car crash than during the light warm summer
months. The worst months of the year for accidents are October
and November between the hours of 4pm and 5pm. 42% of road
deaths occur in the dark.
As weather conditions deteriorate in autumn and winter the roads
become more dangerous. The roads are maintained by the Highways
Agency, an Executive Agency for the Department of Transport, who
salts and grits the motorways and trunk roads. Other smaller
roads are gritted by local councils although some rural roads
are not covered at all. The Highways Agency aims to reduce
delays and the amount of road traffic accidents by clearing snow
and preventing the formation of ice.
The gritting service depends on the weather forecast and there
is therefore room for error. Teams of gritters are on nightly
standby throughout the country in the winter months. They wait
for the temperature to drop to around 1° and are then called in
for gritting. An error of around 1° is crucial when the
temperature is about zero, but is not as critical when the
temperature is about 5°. Local expertise and experience is vital
around the time when gritters are in operation. Precautionary
gritting is carried out in the evening after the rush hour and
first thing in the morning before the morning traffic.
Personal injury claim Unfortunately there still many car
accidents and road traffic accidents involving motorcycles and
lorries every year in the UK due to adverse weather conditions.
While many of the accidents that occur are as a result of
driver error or carelessness, some can be attributed to a
failure on the part of the agencies in charge of road
maintenance, to grit the roads. If a driver has a car accident
because of icy or snowy conditions that could have been avoided
because the agency in charge of this had failed to grit the
road, then a personal injury claim may be brought against the
agency. If the driver is injured and their vehicle is damaged
then they may be entitled by law to claim compensation if it can
be proven that someone else was at fault.
The Highways Agency and each council have criteria for gritting.
Unfortunately on occasions the roads may not be gritted because
they could not predict the adverse weather conditions. If an
accident occurs when the roads should reasonably have been
gritted, then compensation could be sought. These cases can be
complicated and it may be difficult to prove that a local
authority or government agency was responsible for the accident.
If you have been in a car accident that was caused by black ice
on a road you believe should have been gritted then you may want
to seek legal advice about your position.
What should you do if you have an accident? If you have had a
road traffic accident that you believe was not your fault then
you may be entitled to make a personal injury claim. You can get
free legal advice at
www.wheelsatonce.com or you can call on
0800 78 38 846 to learn more.
Avoiding accidents Although we do rely on road maintenance to a
large extent to keep our roads safe we should always take our
own precautions when driving in the winter. You should take
extra care in the roads, drive slowly and carefully when the
weather is bad and make sure you have carried out basic
maintenance on your vehicle. You should always:
Check that your lights work and are clean
Check the tyre pressure
Check the oil level
Make sure you have enough window cleaning solution, in case you
have to drive on a dirty road
Carry emergency provisions and warm clothes in case you break
down
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