Posted By Ken Lucas
Travelling to a client early yesterday morning, very icy after a hard frost in the area - large HGV sheeted over with tarpaulin. From about one hundred yards I noticed small amounts of ice dislodging and consequently, after further vehicle movement, falling into the road. There had been heavy rain over the weekend, so, did the risk assessment and stayed well back.

Up comes Mr Peugeot 407 - swift to overtake me and consequently drive 'head to tail' with the HGV. As suspected more ice dislodged and subsequently a piece the size and thickness of a paving slab came crashing down on his bonnet, bouncing off and only breaking up upon impact with the road.

Mr Peugeot 407 overtook the HGV to stop the driver and 'discuss' with him the issue. However he only just made the manoeuvre as the incident eventually disabled his vehicle. When I overtook the vehicles the damage was quite incredible - the dent in his bonnet was at least three inches deep and the full size of the ice block - with steam etc coming out of the grill.

I suppose he was lucky as the ice block could have gone through the windscreen with likely dreadful consequences for Mr Peugeot 407. However, question; how does your insurance stand with an incident like this?

Suppose all drivers should include 'icy/rain' risk assessment before commencing their journey though.

Regards

Ken

Posted By MarkJAWatkins
Surely the 407 driver was far too close (possibly even on the verge of dangerous driving due to weather conditions) any decent investigator would look at that.


Regards,
Mark

Posted By Mark Talbot
Fletcher.

Escape.

Reasonable?

I would expect it will end up somewhere like 80-20 against truck ... just glad to see that dynamic risk assessment still works :-)

Posted By Diane Thomason
Just wanted to point out that you don't need to be driving too close to be at risk from this.
Same thing nearly happened to me years ago on the M25. (At that time I was Ms Vauxhall Cavalier.) I was behind a lorry which did not appear to be shedding any ice, and I was NOT driving too close, m'lud! when a thick, paving-stone sized slab of ice flew off the top of the lorry into the air. Thought it was heading for my windscreen and braced myself for the inevitable horror. The ice smashed on the road in front of me, but it was a nasty moment.
These projectiles don't necessarily "fall down", the ice flew up as if thrown.

Posted By Descarte
shouldnt that be needle's to say

as in pine cone, pine needles...

Ah forget it

Posted By RobAnybody
No, the passenger on the trike released an insecure load!!!

Posted By Brett Day

"Only a fool breaks the two second rule"

Mr 407 sounds like he was too close so would get a hit for that, and the lorry driver, would also get a knock on the basis of unsecured load (I know it's not a load, but we are talking about insurers here).

Posted By IT
Hmmm,

Was the Ice part of the load or an enviromental issue,if the ICE is an enviromental condition what control of the enviroment did the Truck Driver have. As for the Traffic Bobby , I just ask my wife and her friends who are all Police officers (Including Essex traffic).

The Lorry is not carrying the ice on consignment and it could not be considered an unsafe/unsecure load ,unless the Government /owners are going to introduce heated lorry parking places (better withdraw that someone might think its a real idea),Given the description of the 407 it seems the Driver was not paying due care and attention ,to the conditions,but who knows it could be the Lorry driver should not have driven on the road to ensure no risk to other road users at all.

Posted By Telstar
If it had been an Iceland deliver lorry, would that have made any difference.

Posted By Rob Yuill
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/...england/kent/4588852.stm

A driver has made an official complaint to police after he received a warning for driving with snow on his car roof, he was spoken to by the officer when he stopped to buy a paper.

In a statement, Kent Police said its prime concern in dangerous weather conditions was for public safety.

The driver said he was approached by the plain-clothes police officer, who showed him his warrant card and then "very aggressively" told him that the next time he took his vehicle onto a public road he should ensure that all the snow was cleared off it first.

The force said all formal complaints were investigated thoroughly, but it would expect officers to point out a potential hazard.

The statement explained that uncleared snow could obscure the windscreen or blow into the path of passers-by or other vehicles, which would be a significant hazard at speed.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________

So there you have it! If it snows and it gathers on your vehicle when travelling slowly, stop, clear the snow off then continue. Repeat as often as necessary.

OK fine, so what about the risk to you the driver I hear you cry?

Doh, review assessment!!

p.s. It's almost as comical as when one of our drivers was fined £400 for an insecure load; a TOMATO that fell from a waste container - but it did land on the bonnet of a patrol car!! TRUE!!

Rob

Posted By Merv Newman
Well yes, me to. I have a brush to clear all snow off my car before I set off. But a Truckie ? How can he safely clear snow/ice off the top of his trailer ? What is the incentive ?

You know it. I know it. The police know it. One just hopes that nothing bad will happen. And, statistically, it don't. But sometimes it does.


As they say, snow happens.

Merv