Earth thrown up by tractor ploughing field damaged car

[clive_candy]

Like it says in the title, I was driving along a country road - the A54 towards Congleton for those of you who know the area - and passing a tractor ploughing a field alongside the road when there was an almighty thump on the roof of the car.

I knew instantly it must have been a clod of earth thrown up by the tractor and if It had hit the windscreen I can only imagine it would have smashed it. Anyway, there's now a big dent right in the middle of the roof.

Anyone know whether there's any law that would apply in this case in terms of liability or do I just suck it up and claim on the insurance?

[NikBartlett]

Unless you have some very good quality dash cam footage then good luck identifying the driver of the tractor and then proving it was their actions that cause the dent.

[Austin_Metro]

I’d tell my insurers. If you can determine who was ploughing (details of farmer) you could tell your insurers that. They would then take a view as to whether a claim against his insurers would likely be successful and decide whether to follow up.

You other choice is to not claim, pursue the farmer yourself … but that would, ahem, in my view be ploughing your own furrow and would be an uphill struggle … unless you’ve got compelling evidence.

My instinct is if the insurers can’t be bothered to claim off the farmer it would be because chances of success are too small, which ought to guide you.

[Mr E]

Who was negligent?

[anonymous-user]

clive_candy said:

Anyone know whether there's any law that would apply in this case...

Sod's Law

[cuprabob]

280E said:

clive_candy said:

Anyone know whether there's any law that would apply in this case...

Sod's Law

As it's a farmer, Murphy's Law might apply.

[carl_w]

280E said:

Sod's Law

[Roger Irrelevant]

carl_w said:

280E said:

Sod's Law

And another

[Canon_Fodder]

clive_candy said:

Anyone know whether there's any law that would apply in this case in terms of liability or do I just suck it up and claim on the insurance?

OP I suggest this is not a matter for m'learned friends and your best bet is to claim on your insurance

[MK1RS Bruce]

Seriously you reckon a clod of earth was thrown from a tractor and plough while it was in a field?? Maybe you need to have a watch of some ploughing videos on youtube, absolutely no way would you ever get earth thrown from a plough over a fence and landing on the roof of a car.

[TheDrownedApe]

Similar happened to us. Tractor and trailer came off a field, flicked a stone off its tyre as it was passing us and cracked the window. Dash cam wasn't nearly capable of capturing it or the lack of reg on the tractor.

Cost us new window, price of living in the country I guess

Edited by TheDrownedApe on Tuesday 30th August 20:52

[Decky_Q]

I've ploughed several hundred miles of fields and as the ploughs are not powered attachments there is no way you could launch a sod of earth anywhere never mind over a fence or hedge.

Perhaps they were using a different attachment?

[Foss62]

This doesn’t sound like something a plough would do. They just invert soil to a fair depth at quite slow speeds. I suppose it could be some sort of powered cultivator lifted out before the power was taken off, but maybe more likely to have been thrown up by one of your car’s wheels?

[sunbeam alpine]

Are you sure they were ploughing? It's a bit early to be ploughing, especially given how dry it's been.

Most people plough between 4 & 6 mph and this won't throw big lumps any distance. A really reckless driver might achieve this at the end of the furrow by lifting the plough and swinging round really fast, but it would still be quite an achievement.

ETA: I seem to be the slowest farmer to answer!

[AndyAudi]

Unlikely to be ploughing did it look a bit like this?

https://youtu.be/kDx8fM5rDNw

[Ham_and_Jam]

sunbeam alpine said:

Are you sure they were ploughing? It's a bit early to be ploughing, especially given how dry it's been.

They were definitely ploughing the fields near us last weekend.

Not sure it would hurl huge lumps of clod over a hedge though.

[clive_candy]

Thanks for the responses all, Sod's and Murphy's Laws made me laugh especially.

Yep, couldn't have told you exactly what the tractor was doing, only that it seemed to have some implement on the back and stuff was being thrown up.

I thought about stopping at the time but it wouldn't have been easy or especially safe so I carried on thinking it was all captured on my dashcam. Turns out none of the trip had been recorded for some reason so the question of liability is moot anyway as I've no hope of identifying the tractor.

Now, can anyone recommend a dent remover?

[paintman]

Sure it was a bit of mud?

www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1NIqrCIZWc

www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4cpfDiUMqo

Edited by paintman on Wednesday 31st August 00:30

[Ninja59]

Is the paint cracked on the roof?

Personally, and depending on excess it may be cheaper and straightforward to get a PDR person to remove the dent.

[48k]

Sounds to me more likely to be muck spreading than ploughing.