Take care around gritters, says crash victim
amount of salt is spread to all lanes.
Their rear is most vulnerable as it is where the salt spreading equipment is located.
If this is hit then it can mean the gritter g has to be taken off the road to be repaired, which is costly and could affect critical services in extreme w weather conditions.
Garry told the Weekly News: “The psychological impact was quite bad to be honest, and I didn’t want to get back in a wagon for a few weeks a after it happened.
“Experience prevails, and you push on and you get back in, but both me and the car driver were lucky not to have sustained much worse injuries.
“I’d ask drivers to give us as wide a ● berth as possible this winter and to stay behind us until we’ve finished our treatment if they can, as it’s much safer.
“Usually you’ll find a gritter will only be doing a few motorway junctions before pulling off anyway.”
Andrew Olive, Highways England’s North West severe weather manager, said: “The vast majority of drivers support our gritter drivers by leaving a sensible distance and only passing when it’s safe to do so, but we do have occasions when people misjudge the situation and end up colliding with one of our vehicles.
“The driver of the Ford Focus was lucky not to be more seriously injured in the incident on the M57 earlier this year, and gritter drivers like Garry should be able to do their job without having to worry about whether other vehicles might strike them.
“Our gritter drivers perform a vital role to keep motorways and major A roads moving during the winter so I’d urge drivers to take extra care when travelling near them.”