When was the last time your drove along a gravel road or motorway and ended up with a chip in your windscreen? What may seem like a humble piece of glass, actually has a number of important features.
The windscreen is a safety device – it doesn’t just keep the wind off our faces and bugs out of our mouths. In a car accident, the windscreen acts as both a structural element of the car (keeping the roof from collapsing) and as a kind of “backboard” for the passenger side airbag.
For a simple repair, a glass technician can often come to your home or work, and will take around 20 to 30 minutes to complete the fix. A windscreen replacement has to be done at the repairer's workshop and can take around 3 - 4 hours - or more if the glass needed is not in stock.
Repairing windscreen glass first is a key focus for Smith&Smith® who quote that their windscreen repairs result in 80% less carbon emissions than a replacement* This carbon saving is the equivalent of a flight from Auckland to Wellington, per passenger.
Whenever a windscreen can’t be repaired, Smith&Smith® is on a mission to ensure no windscreen glass ends up in landfill, and they have been recycling windscreens at their entire corporate branch network since 2017.
In 2023, 94% of the windscreens they replaced were recycled. Smith&Smith®’s broken windscreens are recycled into bottles and jars, glass wool insulation, pool filters, and even used for sand blasting.
* Estimate calculated using 2023 operational data from Belron® companies including New Zealand.
As soon as a chip appears on your windscreen, it will begin to affect the windscreen’s structural integrity. If a chip or crack is larger than 25mm (the size of a $2 coin) or in the driver’s line of vision, your car will fail its WOF.
If a car has a crack in the windscreen and has an accident, the windscreen is more likely to fail – resulting in crushed roofs and less effective airbags. A windscreen also acts as a barrier to keep occupants or objects in a car if seatbelts fail.
If you have AMI Comprehensive Car insurance, you’re covered for damage to your windscreen. If you have Third Party, Fire and Theft insurance, you can add glass breakage cover for broken windows, windscreens and sunroofs.
If you have glass excess buy-out added to your policy, you won’t have to pay an excess if you claim for your windscreen.
Get your windscreen fixed before it’s too late or becomes a bigger problem. Contact AMI today to find out more, or add our great windscreen extras to your policy.
If you've got a chip or crack that you need fixed, you can lodge a claim directly with a preferred supplier. Either phone 0800 100 200 and follow the prompts to 'windscreen claim' - you will be connected directly with a preferred supplier.
