Icy Windows

Now that all the ice and crap has finally thawed again, I’m reminded of something I meant to write a week ago. The subject is simple – iced up car windows.

Over the week or so of consistently cold weather, I found it quite gobsmacking just how many people were out on the roads driving with only a tiny patch of scraped windscreen to see through, while leaving the rest to melt of its own accord. Partly because it’s illegal (if memory serves, you’re supposed to make sure all the windows are scraped/clear before you set off – The Highway Code certainly says so) and partly because it’s – well – incredibly fucking stupid.

Additionally, it doesn’t really take up that much time/effort. For me, the entire process involved simply opening the car, starting it up so that the heater was working and warming things from the inside, and going round with a scraper. By the time I’d done all four side windows, the heated windscreen and rear-windscreen had done their job, and the entire thing was ready to go in about five minutes. (at most)

Now yes, I know that I live out in The Sticks™, so leaving the engine running while scraping the windows isn’t likely to result in an incident like this one. Being outside and scraping the car also means I don’t leave it unattended and then come back to find it’s been nicked. (and let’s be honest, that should just be filed under “Idiot Tax”)

But my point is that it doesn’t take much effort to go round scraping the car’s windows. And personally I’d rather make that effort than either get pulled over by the police for dangerous driving (which I think is the correct charge for driving with non-clear windows) or be involved in an accident where the insurance then refuses to pay out because it could be seen as my fault for not seeing [whatever was collided with] because my windows were still iced over.