Comprehensive Claim Filed As Collision

[Slassco]

I agree with xrac. 15 plus years in claims and have never seen this loss reserved as a collision. Most personal auto policies define a comp loss as something like this:

"Loss caused by the following is considered other than collision:

6. Hail, water or flood."

If the policy does not exclude water driven in to, or define comp as water or flood to a parked car then comp would apply.

I would file a DOI complaint and let them sort it out.

Useless fact 101. the water causes hydro lock because it takes place of the air normally sucked into the engine, not due to it being heavy. The water does not compress like the air/ fuel mixture normally would. The crank pushes the piston up on the compression stroke to compress the air and fuel for ignition. Since the water took place if the air there is less room in the combustion chamber and the piton cannot reach tdc, so the rod bends since it is the weakest part.

 

[xrac]

?............I would file a DOI complaint and let them sort it out................

I totally agree. I think a complaint would cause the insurance company to rethink this.

 

[RFMaurone]

It's great that you brought this to the forum, but I suggest you contact an attorney. I think your chances are very slim based on the proximate cause being running into water but give it a try.

 

[djs]

The total potential damages here are a few hundred dollars, the difference in premium between a collision loss and a comp loss.

The cost of getting an attorney involved (they don't work for free) will probably exceed the cost of the premium change.

Unfortunately, the DOI probably won't help in this matter either. The claim was paid.

Just call the carrier and tell them that the incident was incorrectly coded and needs to be reviewed as a comp loss rather than a collision loss. Your agent should be able to help with this. Or at least your agent can get an explanation of what caused it to be coded the way it is.

It won't be instant though. The claim files have been achived off and need to be retrieved. A committee will review. No big deal, just expect a bit of a delay from request to response.

Dan

 

[CKSINSURANCE]

Agreed with XRAC, collision means auto colliding with another object or upset of a car. In this case, it's not the impact from the collision with the water that damaged the car but the water that entered the engine. it's a water loss that should be covered under comprehensive.