by khanhsos » Fri Jun 17, 2011 05:23 am
A truck was pulling a camper going West bound and a piece of the camper flew off and hit my car causing much damage. (I was going east bound on a 2 lane highway, both car traveling about 65 mph. It was a windy day. The other drivers insurance said that this is an act of God due to high winds and declined to pay my claim. are they correct to say this? This happened in the State of Kansas if this matters?
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 01:08 pm Post Subject:
Man I hate the term... it makes it easy to blame "someone" else and clouds the issue.
The issue is _not_ the high winds... it's if their injured was negligent. How strong were the winds? More then 65mph that the truck was creating by driving that fast? If so, the camper should not have been out on the road and if it was, then the operator should have known it was unsafe to drive.
I'mm guessing the winds were much less then 65mph... so the truck itself being driven was creating more wind pressure against the camper then the actual winds. Should parts of your vehicle/camper normally fly off under such use? I think not. Truth is... the operator was not maintaining property maintenance on his camper and this is why that part flew off. That is negligence.
Even if they wanted to blame this on strong wind (and that is weak), you still have an argument. The operator _knew_ what the wind as like yet he/she still choose to pull the camper. So he/she is assuming responsibility for the possibility that the strong wind would cause a problem. The operator was 100% in control of what happen regardless of what the insurance company wants to blame it on.
I think the adjuster is really not understanding liability and using this "god" thing to cloud the issue. It's not an "act of god"... it's their insured choosing to operate his/her vehicle in hazardous conditions and therefore accepting responsibly for what happens.
Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2011 04:07 pm Post Subject:
act of God
Very convenient way to deny a claim since God will not be available to testify in court as to whether He was or was not responsible for someone's damages.
Should be prohibited language in insurance contract exclusions!
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