Slip-slip-sliding away makes busiest claims day for AA Insurance

After a decade of mild winters many drivers are enduring their first taste of severe winter weather.

If the high level of claims calls being experienced by broker AA Insurance at their Cardiff call centre is anything to go by, drivers are coming to grief with shunts, bumps and sliding out of control into lamp-posts, walls or trees.

Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance says: "By 10.00 this morning, the call centre had received 30 per cent more claims than usual for a winter Monday making it our busiest start to a day this year and as the snow swept westwards, the rate of calls had increased to about 50 per cent above normal by mid-afternoon.

"On a normal Monday we would expect around 1,700 claims but we are predicting up to 3,000 today. Many drivers are completely unused to driving in snow and ice and inevitably the claims are blowing in with the same force as the blizzards."

He adds: "I would strongly urge drivers to think twice before setting out on their journey where there are severe weather conditions: it's just not worth risking losing your no-claim bonus."