Car badly damaged due to road works.. Compensation??

subscriber

Hi folks,

I was driving home last night through my local area where road works have been going on for the past few weeks. There was machinery and such cordoned off at the side of the road but on the outside of the bollards there was a large rock close to the roadside. I did not see this rock at the time and drove straight into it with my driver side wheel. Then, when driving home my car was making a loud groaning noise.

I brought it to the mechanic this morning and he was able to tell me that the drivers side wheel suspension has shattered and will need to be replaced. So now my car is off the road for a week whilst it is in the garage and I have also had to rent a car for the week, costing me more money.

So my question is, I am entitled to be compensated for this damage from my county council considering there was a rock on the road which caused this damage to my car. Surely my annual road tax should prevent situations like this happening and I should expect to be able to drive on the road without danger of hitting excess debris from road works.

Many Thanks

hallo dare

subscriber wrote: »

Hi folks,

I was driving home last night through my local area where road works have been going on for the past few weeks. There was machinery and such cordoned off at the side of the road but on the outside of the bollards there was a large rock close to the roadside. I did not see this rock at the time and drove straight into it with my driver side wheel. Then, when driving home my car was making a loud groaning noise.

I brought it to the mechanic this morning and he was able to tell me that the drivers side wheel suspension has shattered and will need to be replaced. So now my car is off the road for a week whilst it is in the garage and I have also had to rent a car for the week, costing me more money.

So my question is, I am entitled to be compensated for this damage from my county council considering there was a rock on the road which caused this damage to my car. Surely my annual road tax should prevent situations like this happening and I should expect to be able to drive on the road without danger of hitting excess debris from road works.

Many Thanks

can you prove it?

subscriber

hallo dare wrote: »

can you prove it?

How can I?? A photo of the place of the incident? A photo of my damaged car?

Cavehill Red

subscriber wrote: »

there was a large rock close to the roadside. I did not see this rock at the time and drove straight into it

Sounds like you deserve to be compensated by the person responsible for the damage - you.

subscriber

Cavehill Red wrote: »

Sounds like you deserve to be compensated by the person responsible for the damage - you.

And how do u figure that? Maybe I haven't made it clear enough but the rock was on the carriage way all be it to the side. It was not down in a ditch somewhere.

hallo dare

subscriber wrote: »

How can I?? A photo of the place of the incident? A photo of my damaged car?

you've just answered it yourself by your own questions. council won't entertain you one bit. you've no way of proving that it happened where you said it happened. Don't give yourself an extra headache by even trying to follow them up on this.

knotknowbody

hallo dare wrote: »

can you prove it?

+1

Your going to have a tough time proving it, you will need to prove the council knew the rock was there, knew it was a danger and failed to act.

It is very likely it "fell" or "rolled" out of the ditch/cordoned off area after the council workers went home.

They will claim that as you were in a roadworks area you should been exercising appropriate care and driving in a manner that would allow you see these type of obstacles and avoid them.

Unfortunately I think you will be very lucky to get anything, it sickens me to see incompetence, shoddy workmanship and "It'll be grand" attitude of workers in these kind of jobs constantly affect people with no repercussions for them.

Cavehill Red

subscriber wrote: »

And how do u figure that? Maybe I haven't made it clear enough but the rock was on the carriage way all be it to the side. It was not down in a ditch somewhere.

I figure it like this:

They will claim that as you were in a roadworks area you should been exercising appropriate care and driving in a manner that would allow you see these type of obstacles and avoid them.

T-Maxx

The contractor who's site it is is responsible. It may be the local authority themselves though. Either way they must have public liability insurance, but for small claims like yours they'll settle, provided you're convincing enough.

LowKeyReturn

You need to prove negligence. The facts seem to suggest you hit a stationary object with your car. If you were able to prove negligence and the contractors don;t simply say that they didn't leave it there it must have been kids, I'd expect a claim reduced for contributory negligence on your part.

Not legal advice simply the ramblings of the uninformed. The former is prohibited because the latter is not.

godtabh

There have been threads on here about this sort of thing in the past.

The procedure is something like report pot hole so LA are aware of it.
If the pot hole then causes damage file a complaint.
Not sure if the same applies here

KeithTS

No such thing as road tax and you shouldn't be compensated as you hit the rock, it was a stationary object on the road, if they dropped it and it damaged your car you might have a case but you drove into it, these things happen it's nobodies fault and next time take appropriate care when driving by road works.

schemingbohemia

subscriber wrote: »

Hi folks,

I was driving home last night through my local area where road works have been going on for the past few weeks. There was machinery and such cordoned off at the side of the road but on the outside of the bollards there was a large rock close to the roadside. I did not see this rock at the time and drove straight into it with my driver side wheel. Then, when driving home my car was making a loud groaning noise.

I brought it to the mechanic this morning and he was able to tell me that the drivers side wheel suspension has shattered and will need to be replaced. So now my car is off the road for a week whilst it is in the garage and I have also had to rent a car for the week, costing me more money.

So my question is, I am entitled to be compensated for this damage from my county council considering there was a rock on the road which caused this damage to my car. Surely my annual road tax should prevent situations like this happening and I should expect to be able to drive on the road without danger of hitting excess debris from road works.

Many Thanks

So, being aware that there were road works in your local area you decided to drive without due care and attention into a rock. If it had been a child would you have noticed?

To do the claimed amount of damage it must have been some size of a rock, I'd be getting my eyes tested and perhaps letting someone else drive for a while.

coconutpie

Depends where you are living.
If Mr. Lowry is your local TD, you're sorted ....




http://www.broadsheet.ie/2013/03/11/he-fixed-the-road-in-a-manner-of-speaking/

Pat Mustard

subscriber wrote: »

How can I?? A photo of the place of the incident? A photo of my damaged car?

If you have incurred serious expense in this accident, and if you are serious about investigating whether or not you have a case, you should take photos of the location, rock and car and bring those those pictures to an experienced solicitor asap.

Depending on how that meeting goes, the solicitor may advise you to engage a litigation engineer to investigate the matter further. Or he may not.

That rock will be gone at some stage. You would want to move fast.

subscriber

schemingbohemia wrote: »

So, being aware that there were road works in your local area you decided to drive without due care and attention into a rock. If it had been a child would you have noticed?

To do the claimed amount of damage it must have been some size of a rock, I'd be getting my eyes tested and perhaps letting someone else drive for a while.

Thanks for the helpful comments ... Keyboard warrior. I have no problem with people giving me advice and opinions even if its not what I want to hear. I am mature enough to gauge all opinions / experiences from others. Your comments are plain ignorant and pointless. Go annoy someone else on another forum please. Your quiet obviously to immature to have a grown up conversation. Good boy.

Citycap

While you could initiate an action you will have to be able to prove negligence on behalf of the council/road contractor. If they can line up witnesses to say that they left the site in good order with no materials outside the bollards etc it will difficult to win

JustAThought

Citycap wrote: »

While you could initiate an action you will have to be able to prove negligence on behalf of the council/road contractor. If they can line up witnesses to say that they left the site in good order with no materials outside the bollards etc it will difficult to win

I imagine that If you can Show the rock was big enough not to be able to be moved by " kids" you might have a chance. Ever tried to lift a stack of paving stones -4 or 5 even? They're EXTREMELY heavy. I imagine a rock is a lot heavier. If boulders were left in a position enabling them to roll from the site into the ( dark/unlit/not appropriately lit) works site you might have a chance.

+ 1 for contractor & insurance. I had a lode of cement poured onto my car as it was being lifted across the road above me by a crane. Checked about til I found the contractor. They " cleaned it" - I turned up at their depo and found a black guy from euro-cleaning scraping at my car with a razor blade to get the cement off the paintwork .( wtf). Went mad & they agreed to do a full spray job.

Persistence.

subscriber

So I spoke to the council today and they said they will send me out a form to process the claim. She replied by saying that all I need to do is include a picture of the damage of the car and of the location of the incident and that the claim will take up to two months to process "as they are really busy at the moment".

She treated the phone call as very much routine, oh no problem, heard it all before, you will get your money kind of attitude, so fingers crossed. So far It doesent sound like its going to be any big hassle.

Thanks
Subscriber

subscriber

Just thought I would update this thread to let everyone know that today I received a check from the council for the sum of 250.21 euros, which compensated me for not only the damage to my car but also the cost of a car rental for the week mine was in the garage getting repaired.

6 weeks in total to get them to refer my claim to their insurance company and for the insurers to compensate me.. Not bad going..

Regards

gozunda

To help your claim I would suggest returning to the scene and at least taking photographs of

A) The Site
The Rock - if possible
C) measurements and sketch of area where this occurred including copy of road map with approx location

You could also put out an appeal to other motorists for other similar incidents

Report the issue to your local friendly Garda for report purposes and information.

hullaballoo

gozunda wrote: »

To help your claim I would suggest returning to the scene and at least taking photographs of

A) The Site
The Rock - if possible
C) measurements and sketch of area where this occurred including copy of road map with approx location

You could also put out an appeal to other motorists for other similar incidents

Report the issue to your local friendly Garda for report purposes and information.

Welcome to the Internet. A useful tip is to read the entire thread before replying.

gozunda

hullaballoo wrote: »

Welcome to the Internet. A useful tip is to read the entire thread before replying.

Errhhhh - thanks for that, for some strange reason post did not fully appear as listed. - have been having problems with posts / browser updating on Smartphone :-/

Oh well at least there was no intent to misinform or otherwise but guilty as charged I suppose! but I do hope previous still lists best practise for such incidents....been there personally.