Yesterday at 7:30 PM • Edited yesterday at 8:14 PM
Two truck drivers and a bus driver intervened on the A58 near Moergestel on Wednesday morning after a motorist became unwell and swerved across the road. The men decided to surround the woman’s car with their vehicles and bring it to a stop. No one was injured and the woman is doing well under the circumstances. Her car did sustain damage. But are the drivers insured for the damage they sustained?
At TVM Insurance, an insurer for the transport and logistics sector, they look at such situations on a case-by-case basis. “If drivers intervene in this way and someone is fully insured, there is coverage and we think along with you,” says spokesperson Tomas Riemens.
The policy conditions do not contain anything specific about damage incurred while helping others. “What happened on the A58 is a very specific situation and it is not so specific in our conditions, but it should not be the case that you subsequently have problems with your insurance for such an action.”
“We find that craftsmanship important and we only applaud it.”
TVM sees that truck drivers intervene more often when things threaten to go wrong. “They are well trained to intervene and secure the road,” said Riemens. As an example, he mentions a driver who parked his truck diagonally on a N-road to protect the road after an incident. “We find that craftsmanship important and we only applaud it.”
At ZLM Insurance, a regional insurer in Brabant and Zeeland, there is also nothing specific in the conditions about providing assistance in the event of an accident. “It is very nice that these drivers have intervened in this way, but this is such a unique situation, which makes it difficult,” says Erwin Goetheer, head of Damage department at ZLM.
The insurer does try to encourage policyholders to help others in the conditions. According to Goetheer, anyone who only has third-party liability insurance and puts an injured person in the car, leaving blood behind, is insured for this. “You want to prevent people from leaving others out in the cold, because that may have negative consequences.”
Interpolis, with headquarters in Tilburg, looks at the concrete facts and circumstances in exceptional situations. “This could be, for example, when a driver becomes unwell or when a vehicle becomes undriveable due to a technical malfunction. We then look at, among other things, the severity of the danger and whether the actions of the helpers were reasonable and proportionate,” says spokesperson Babette Schenkelaars.
“Each insurer will assess this with due care and an eye for the special circumstances.”
Bovemij, an insurer that insures many vehicles in the transport sector, also emphasizes the nuance. “Normally, damage caused intentionally is not covered. Our assessment is that every insurer will assess this with due care and an eye for the special circumstances,” said a spokesperson.
Bovemij has described special situations in the conditions, such as evading sudden danger or an acute medical emergency of another road user. However, the insurer has not recorded a situation as exceptional as that on the A58. If a rescue attempt ends in an accident, the same applies here: “If the driver acted reasonably to avoid a greater danger, that can play an important role in assessing liability and coverage.”
