The heavy snow falling over many parts of Britain on white Friday has, up to 3.45 pm brought in 182 car insurance claims already, compared with the 129 average expected for the whole of a typical January Friday. Of those, approaching half (43%) are snow and ice related.
Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance says: “Our claims team has been kept busy today although traffic levels are generally lighter than usual, with many people heeding AA advice and staying at home.
But some people have little choice but to drive to work and no matter how carefully they do so, there is a much higher risk of losing control or someone else hitting your car.
“Fortunately, injuries in snow-related collisions are rare because they tend to happen slowly – almost in slow motion, so usually it’s dented pride as well as dented panels on the car that results.
“However, I would urge drivers not to travel unless absolutely essential. Try to stick to main roads too, as they are most likely to be gritted.”
The most common claims are for tail-end crashes, especially at road junctions and roundabouts. That’s followed by parked cars being hit by vehicles that are sliding out-of-control.
Mr Douglas adds: “Many more drivers have fitted winter tyres this year and that will be paying off – even conventional cars so fitted are less likely to lose traction on snow and ice than a 4×4 vehicle not so equipped. In addition, insurers don’t consider winter tyres to be a modification so car insurance premiums won’t be affected.”
“If you do have to drive, follow the AA’s advice: take plenty of warm clothing and a rug, some food (chocolate is good) and drink, make sure your mobile phone battery is well charged; take a shovel and boots in the car too. Keep your windscreen wash topped up with a low-temperature solution and keep a can of de-icer and scraper in the car.
“When you are driving, allow much more space between your car and the vehicle in front; avoid sudden braking, cornering or acceleration. If pulling away on an icy surface, put your car in a higher gear and accelerate very gently: the moment the wheels start to spin you have lost traction so ease off and try again. It’s worth keeping some pieces of old carpet or cardboard in the car which may help you to get out of an icy rut.”
Battle scars
A quick analysis of snow and ice claims on 18th January show that inanimate objects come off worst from out-of-control vehicles. More than a third were claims following collisions with fences, hedges, walls, kerbs, trees and lamp-posts. A third were tail-end crunches and 10 per cent were collisions with oncoming vehicles. Most of the rest involved hitting parked cars. An unfortunate few ended up in deep water – one driver sliding off the road and ending up in a Norfolk dyke.
