A motorist who spent two days on a life support machine after crashing on black ice is suing the Highways Agency for failing to grit the road properly.
The 47-year-old man, who is a member of the Royal Navy, sustained serious injuries after his car was involved in a three-vehicle collision at Trewint, near Launceston, Cornwall on Jan 21.
He spent three weeks in hospital and is still suffering health problems as a result of the crash.
The victim, from Liskeard, Cornwall, was one of 30 drivers whose cars crashed on a 40-mile stretch of the A30, which runs running from Okehampton in Devon to Bodmin, Cornwall.
No motorist has mounted a successful claim against the agency.
But, according to Richard Biggs, the unnamed motorist’s solicitor, a successful claim could trigger action from other drivers.
While minor roads are the responsibility of local authorities, the burden of maintaining trunk routes rests with the Highways Agency.
The law says that the Highways Agency, and local authorities, have a duty to keep roads clear of snow and ice, as far as reasonably practicable," Mr Biggs said.
"We are looking for people who can tell us about the state of the road on that day, what accidents they saw and what the driving conditions and weather were like.
“It cost the region millions of pounds in lost business.”
The agency’s maintenance of the roads that day attracted criticism from local businessmen.
“In my view, there were two clear failures,” said Tim Jones, chairman of the Devon and Cornwall Business Council.
"Firstly, the Highways Agency was not proactive enough when there was plenty of intelligence beforehand that the conditions would be pretty serious.
“Then insufficient action was taken to ensure that road surfaces were safe. It is a classic case of an accident waiting to happen. Something went badly wrong on that day.”
The accident took place more than a week before Britain was hit by the worst blizzards in decades, which led to a shortage of grit and salt throughout the country.
A Highways Agency spokesman said salt was aid on the road earlier in the day, it was washed away by showers. Then the temperature dropped freezing the surface water.
:“We can’t predict what the weather’s going to be like just after it’s been gritted, that’s life. And even when roads are gritted, it’s not magic - drivers still need to take a great deal of care.”
What perhaps makes this story relevant to us as motorcyclists is that we are even more likely to bin it on black ice, and every year we hear stories of people who have gone down the road, but it may also open up the floodgates in respect of general rubbish left on the road such as deposits from vehicles or farms.
We will have to wait and see!
and that is worrying, but I agree with the majority of your comments.