Your tricky legal questions answered

‘You’d need to prove there was way too much salt’

‘I took a slide on Q the road salt’

A week ago, while commuting on my bike, I had a low-speed accident as I left a roundabout which had been heavily salted/ gritted due to the freezing weather. The front wheel went from under me as I negotiated the bend leaving the roundabout. I have no doubt that it was because of the salt/grit. Although it was dry, it was still very frosty out. Can I get compensation from the local authorities/council for the bike repairs and my damaged clothing so I don’t have to claim on my insurance? I have a large excess which I don’t want to pay.

Andy, email

You are going to have real A difficulties with a claim against the local authority for this accident. The reason the gritting vehicles are deployed is to protect road users from treacherous icy conditions. From a public policy perspective judges are not going to allow such a claim to succeed as it could deter the gritting lorries from attempting to make the roads safe for fear of a claim against them. That would be in nobody’s interest as we would all then risk driving on icy roads. The only way I think you could succeed in a claim would be to argue that they were negligent in depositing too much grit – and I do mean a large mound.

I strongly suspect this was not the case and I am afraid I don’t hold out much hope of a successful claim. It sounds like you will just have to stomach the cost of the excess.