Sometimes the FC&S editors get questions from colleagues who don't deal with the insurance content. This is one such question, as this situation occurred close to a colleague's home.
A couple in a pickup truck were doing donuts in newly fallen snow when the vehicle slid off of the parking lot and into the nearby frozen water, which wasn't quite frozen enough to support the truck. The couple had to be rescued and the truck retrieved from the water. How will this be covered under the auto policy?
Connecticut Subscriber
When dealing with water and vehicles, it's key to look at whether the water impacted the vehicle such as in a flood situation, or the vehicle impacted the water by driving into it, either accidentally or deliberately.
When a vehicle is parked and flood waters rise around it, damaging the vehicle or even carrying it away, that is considered an other than collision, or comprehensive loss. When a driver drives into standing water and the water turns out to be too deep or fast moving for that vehicle and the vehicle is damaged or swept away, that is a collision loss, and the vehicle makes contact with, or collides with the water. While the insured's in this situation didn't plan on driving into the water, it is what happened. Had the insured's not been behaving recklessly and doing donuts in the snow, they would not have ended up in the water. We would consider this a collision loss.