Driving home tonight down a B road following a van doing 50mph.

Passing over a very rough section of the road that has been patched and botched numerous times a black VW Tiguan approaches clearly making good progress, I'd guess approx 70mph.

He flicks up a stone that hits my windscreen, so loud was the bang I nearly filled my pants!

Looking for where it hit I could see no damage so thought I'd got away with it, glad it hadn't hit the bonnet or headlight.

I then noticed the crack edging up from the bottom of my screen, gutted.

When I got home and was able to take a proper look the point of impact was just below the horizon of the dashboard. Checking my Admiral policy a replacement windscreen carries a £70 excess, even more gutted.

I know this is life and is often unavoidable but I have held a bit of a grievance with the council for the poor state of repair of this particular stretch of road, so much so I complained about it only a few months ago.

Do you think the council would entertain a contribution to the cost of repair or should I just get it replaced and forget about it?

Thank the lord the screen is damaged and not you...could have been a lot more worse?

Cheers Mike, I thought as much.

Fair point PC1212, I hate to think what would have been the outcome if this stone had hit a cyclist in the face.

I can say for certain that the stone came from the Tiguan as I saw it heading my way... and blinked

I knew it was likely as I could see the way it was pitching and rolling around on the uneven surface and the dust and grit being flicked up from the road surface, clearly cleaning the road surface as he went!

However as you say I can't prove the stone was a piece of the broken tarmac nor can I say for sure it wasn't already lodged in the tread.

This is the road in question. This picture must have been taken last summer before the harsh winter. The patched strip along the middle has all but disappeared (a bit of which hit my screen!?) and the verge has opened and broken up too...

The council did reply to my original complaint, however I may now reply to their response (blaiming budget cuts) voicing my annoyance, leave it at that and move on!

If you have made a complaint and the council has ignored it then surely they are negligent and therefore liable for any damage caused by the condition of the road that you complained about.

I'll reply to the email expressing my disappointment at the lack of effort in repairing the road. The picture doesn't do it justice!

When I arrange for the windscreen repair will I be able to insist on a genuine Skoda windscreen?

I noticed that the cracked one is the original, or at least it has the Skoda logo in the corner.

At least no personal injuries; with me, it missed the Octavia and hit the caravan.......

£911.99 for a new window, thank goodness for insurance, I pay £100.00 excess.

Edited 1 June, 201214 yr by Yorkshire

I have some knowledge of pothole claims and in all honesty the window in which you can successfully claim is vanishingly small.

First it must be a genuine road defect. There are rules which define what a pothole is for instance.

The Council must have been negligent in it's road inspections during the time of your incident. i.e if the road should get inspected once a month they you have to have your accident after that month and before they inspect it again.

Or

A pothole has to have been reported and the Council has been negligent in repairing it. i.e. it's been reported and their standards say it should be repaired within 48 hours and you have a bump at 55hr

Last time I saw figures for claims for damage caused by road defects a little less than 0.5% were successful.

If you want to try you can put in an FOI for road inspection standards and logs for that section of road and for any complaints of road defects.

Edited 1 June, 201214 yr by Aspman

I rang the insurance company on Saturday, they put me in touch with Auto Windscreens and the earliest they can get someone out to me is Friday!

I've read some pretty nasty stories about Auto Windscreens, I think Auto Glass are supposed to be much better, or was it the other way around?

Anyway they asked me when I made the appointment whether I had the sunshade strip along the top (I do) and whether I had rain sensing wipers (I do).

Due to the concerns about the OEM screens delaminating I didn't bother asking if the replacement would be a genuine OEM screen but I very much doubt it will be.

The delamination is there on my screen but I have noticed at least that it has stopped encroaching up the glass and is still well within the black area. I'm sure it isn't a safety issue otherwise there would have been a recall by now as I don't think I've seen a pre-FL Octavia that isn't suffering the same issue! Isn't the front screen play an important part in the cars structural rigidity?

I'll be watching the guy like a hawk. I want to make sure he doesn't snap my ticket holder too!

The ticket holder is simply screwed onto the A pillar, so should not be affected by replacing the screen.

Check the mirror boss is in the same place on the new screen as there are 2 screens for the Octy Moisture, only a slight difference but fitting of the wrong one will cause the wires to be on show and look hideous

Good tip, thanks

I just had new screen from Auto windshields. Slight issue is that there is

a minor "ripple" at very base of screen. Only noticable from passenger seat

and you need to be low down and looking at bonnet.

New screen has correct position for mirror sensors.

Another difference is there is a metallised layer to reflect heat.

Does make my portable sat nav take longer to lock on.

Check the mirror boss is in the same place on the new screen as there are 2 screens for the Octy Moisture, only a slight difference but fitting of the wrong one will cause the wires to be on show and look hideous

Yup, had Auto Windscreens replace mine after a stone hit like a bullet a few weeks ago, but the bloke was very professional and his boss who took the details asked about whether it the sunscreen strip, rain sensor AND what the distance was from the top of the glass to the sensor, cos as you say, there are two different types, but he was on it. No complaints from my end. Initially was a bit bummed it wasn't an OEM windscreen, but from people talking about the delaminating on this thread alone, i'm happy with whatever has been put on there. Wasn't even aware of anything like that happening before this thread came up.

Just to update this thread, Auto Windscreens came to fit the screen.

Very professional, got a call when he was half an hour away. He checked over the car for existing damage and explained to me the whole process before he started.

I thought I'd help the guy out and put the wipers into the service position but he said there was little point as they needed to come off!

I left him to it and 45 minutes later all was done.

It's a non-genuine screen but is stamped with a logo and the text SOLAR GLASS.

The fitter said there was only three screens available for the Octavia; green (tinted), green/grey (tinted and sunshade) and green/grey with sensor (tinted, sunshade and rain sensor). Not convinced to be honest as there are too many threads on here to the contrary.

Anyway it looks great, the parking ticket clip remains intact, no visable wires near the rear view mirror and it has a nice heat resistant surface to it.

£70 excess to pay my insurers.

Top marks to Auto Windscreens.

Had mine replaced and the ticket clip is now slightly too far away I think - means that occasionally I get an annoying rattle from it, and whilst tickets do grip in it, they often slide down and fall off if I leave them there and drive away.....