While I would always advise against having an accident on the motorway – if you were planning on one, that is – there is even more reason not to.
Drivers are being hit with expensive bills from Highways Agency contractors for emergency repairs. Motorists claim the prices are over-inflated and in some cases they question whether the repairs ever took place.
Now why am I not surprised by this? Always the motorist is seen as a cash cow. The article cites a specific example:
Sheila Kaur-Patel, who works as a BBC production manager, was shocked when she received an invoice for £3,000 for damage she had allegedly caused during a motorway incident.
Nearly three months earlier she had skidded across the M6 after unexpectedly hitting some liquid on the surface and ended up facing the wrong way on the hard shoulder.
“When the bill arrived, I was devastated. The damages or so-called ‘maintenance fees’ are worth more than my car.”
So, the road surface was unfit for purpose and the Highways Agency’s contractor hits the victim with the bill. Nice.
Amey LG Limited told Sheila that the bill she received was for inspection work carried out after she left the scene.
A spokesperson for the company told the BBC: “It is important that defects are repaired after an incident to ensure the safety of the travelling public.”
“If repairs are necessary, we liaise with any party found to have caused damage to recover the associated costs. A breakdown of these are provided to the relevant parties in an invoice.”
But she didn’t cause the damage, did she? She was a victim of a spillage – a spillage caused by someone else, but being lazy, greedy bastards, you just thought you’d hit her with the invoice anyway.
This is the same irresponsible mentality that the NHS uses when it sends out invoices for ambulances to the driver of vehicles involved regardless of who was at fault. My father received one many years ago when a pedestrian stepped out in front of his bike from between two parked vehicles. Entirely her fault. He paid the price, though.
But when the companies concerned have been challenged about either the level of the charge – in excess of £300 in most cases – or asked to provide evidence of the spill and a breakdown of the charges levied – the amount is reduced or not pursued any further.
And therein lies the lesson here. Tell them where to get off and mean it. Do not pay, refuse to pay and make them pursue you through the courts if necessary. More likely than not, they will back down.
Insurance companies have been a target for motorway maintenance contractors for some time and insurers have frequently questioned some of the discrepancies that appear in the charges.
There is a word to describe this behaviour; fraud.
Tell them where to get off certainly, but implicit in the BBC lady’s story is that the Highways Agency have a responsiblilty for, as you put it, keeping the roads fit for purpose. Indeed their spokesman admits as much. Clearly they failed. Personally, I would not only refuse to pay but hit them with a bill for repair costs, health costs, distress, and negligent reckless endangerment of life. But then I’m like that.
Oh, absolutely. Fight fire with fire and if enough people responded likewise, they would eventually get the message.
I wonder if they have the same legal standing as parking fines in supermarket carparks, ie none.
I got one of thos ambulance bills 30 years ago when a drunk ran out in front of my car.
Normal practice at that time if you were not at fault was to simply send it straight back.
That’s what I did and heard nothing further.
The last I heard of the drunk was about 10 years back. He had been given a 10 year ban for drunk driving whilst banned from driving for drunk driving. The lengths that some will go to to show us that they never learn…….