Vehicle Through Ice

[Pertzbro]

I'm in Northern Iowa and live on a lake. There has been much discussion with my ice fishing friends that if you vehicle goes through the ice that insurance will not cover it.

We drive on the ice for about a month or a month and a half when ice fishing and the ice is over a foot thick, but there can be spots where it is thinner.

Does auto insurance have an exclusion for driving on frozen lakes/ponds? It would be the totaling of the vehicle and the cost to retrieve it out of the ice/water.

Thanks

 

[fed up]

Insurance companies cover stupidity every day. If there is nothing in your policy which expressly excludes coverage for parking on water then you are okay.

 

[Pertzbro]

I've read that some policies will have "Off-Road Recreation" exclusion of which driving on ice would be included. I'm having my staff look at our companies for this exclusion more in depth.

 

[adjusterjack]

"Collision" means the upset of "your covered
auto" or a "non-owned auto" or their impact with
another vehicle or object.
Loss caused by the following is considered other
than "collision":
1. Missiles or falling objects;
2. Fire;
3. Theft or larceny;
4. Explosion or earthquake;
5. Windstorm;
6. Hail, water or flood;
7. Malicious mischief or vandalism;
8. Riot or civil commotion;
9. Contact with bird or animal; or
10. Breakage of glass.

I suppose it would be covered either by the "upset" peril or "water."

However, there's this exclusion:

We will not pay for:
2. Damage due and confined to:
b. Freezing;

However, assuming that it is covered, you would likely be surcharged for an at-fault accident and possibly non-renewed when your insurance underwriter learns that you do this regularly, thus driving your rates to the stratosphere when you buy new coverage.

I suggest you discontinue the practice if you want to preserve competitively priced insurance.

Maybe get a light weight inexpensive snow-mobile.

Like Fed Up says: Stupidity is covered.

But not without consequences.

 

[fed up]

You stated: I've read that some policies will have "Off-Road Recreation" exclusion. that is one reason why it is so expensive to insure a Jeep. Damage from rolling down a hillside is extensive and some people actually turn in claims for thoughtless actions but it really is no different than attempting to tow a vehicle and tearing off the bumper. Insurance companies are able to read the tea leaves and if losses from ice fishing start to statistically increase negative bottom lines you can rest assured that the exclusion will be included in policy language of major carriers

 

[Pertzbro]

I'll let you know what my companies say. Auto Owners has already said it's covered. Looks like most of you who have commented are from the South.

Ice fishing and driving on ice is extremely common in our Area and further north - Minnesota. We have alot of regional carriers here that are HQ'ed in Minnesota and Wisconsin.

 

[Allen Trent]

I'm in Northern Iowa and live on a lake. There has been much discussion with my ice fishing friends that if you vehicle goes through the ice that insurance will not cover it.

We drive on the ice for about a month or a month and a half when ice fishing and the ice is over a foot thick, but there can be spots where it is thinner.

Does auto insurance have an exclusion for driving on frozen lakes/ponds? It would be the totaling of the vehicle and the cost to retrieve it out of the ice/water.

Thanks

It will most likely depend on whether it is legal to drive on the frozen lake or not. If illegal, they may not pay the claim. the confusion likely comes from a decades old story (possibly true or made up) of a State Farm client who was out ice fishing with a buddy & his dog. The story went that the guy lit a stick of dynamite or something & threw it. the dog retrieved it and came back to near the vehicle where it exploded & sunk the new SUV. State Farm supposedly denied the claim, not because the vehicle merely sunk, but because of the illegal activity of using an explosive.

Again, I have no idea if it is true, but I have heard that story several times over the years and I am not even connected to State Farm at all.

When your car falls through the ice | CarInsurance.com

 

[Pertzbro]

It's legal.

 

[AZtinman]

In Arizona we don't have frozen lakes. Which is one reason people live in Arizona.

Instead, we have raging rivers in the rainy season.

Normally the rivers beds are dry and and some roads go right though them. In the rainy season there can be from a foot of water to 5 or 6 feet of water in them. Swift moving water. Real fast. And powerful.

Every year stupid people, usually visitors from back east, try to cross the raging water and are swept downstream only to be buried in tons of sand and silt.

And, usually, they have to drive AROUND warning signs to try and cross the water.

How stupid is that?

tinman

 

[adjusterjack]

Minnesota tracks fatalities out on the ice. In 2013 all four deaths were the result of vehicles going through thin ice. Since they started keeping statistics in 1976, 49 deaths have involved vehicles that plunged through the ice.

That's 49 Darwin Awards, folks.

In some cases, dozens of vehicles sink all at once. At a recent ice fishing tournament at Lake Winnebago in Wisconsin 36 ice fishers came back to find their vehicles through the ice. While most trucks were only up to their wheels in water, 18 ended up fully submerged.

Definition of insanity - Doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result.