When Cranes Attack

Soon To Be Sorry

 

Meet the fictional “soon to be sorry” Hennie van der Merwe, who is experiencing what the Germans call “Verschlimmbessern”, making something worse by trying to improve it. He has just signed away five years of his financial soul for a metallic blue BMW M3, complete with leather seats that whisper sweet promises of success and monthly payments that will have his wife serving him two minute noodles until 2030.

 

He is driving past a Newlands construction site, windows down, feeling like the king of Cape Town, when boof, a massive concrete cylinder the size of a swimming pool decides to test Newton’s law of gravity using his Beemer as the landing pad.

 

Thank goodness Hennie is fine, but his car goes from “automotive excellence” to “abstract art” in 0.2 seconds flat. The construction workers stand around looking like extras in a disaster movie, hard hats askew, wondering whether to call the foreman, the paramedics or a priest.

 

This type of scenario happens more often than you would think and the insurance implications can be as clear as muddy water after a Johannesburg thunderstorm.

 

When Murphy’s Law Meets German Engineering

 

Here is the rub. When a construction site turns your car into expensive scrap metal, you have got a multi party insurance tango that would make even the most seasoned broker reach for a double espresso. Understanding who pays is crucial.

 

Why Third Party Motor Insurance is Like Bringing a Knife to a Tank Fight

 

Comprehensive motor insurance is certainly not only about your driving. Your stationary car can be obliterated by falling space debris, rogue hippos (see our website testimonials – this actually happened) or as our image so frighteningly illustrates, construction equipment with abandonment issues.

 

Third party motor insurance covers the damage you cause to others. It does absolutely nothing when a crane drops a shipping container on your BMW. You could be left standing there with a claim form in one hand and your carless keys in the other, wondering why nobody mentioned that “acts of construction” are not covered by motor liability insurance.

 

Why You Need Motor Comprehensive Insurance

 

Comprehensive motor insurance typically covers:

• Accidental damage: When life happens to your car
• Impact damage: Flying objects, falling trees, and yes, construction equipment with gravity issues
• Malicious damage: When someone decides your car offended them personally
• Natural disasters: Hail, floods and the occasional baboon invasion
• Theft: Because some people have flexible concepts of ownership
• Third Party Liability: Sometimes you make errors of judgment and you change someone else’s life in an unpleasant way

The crucial bit? Impact by falling objects is covered by most comprehensive motor insurance policies.

 

The Devil Wears Fineprint

 

Let’s flip the script and look at this from the building contractor’s eyes.

 

Imagine you are running a construction site and your crane operator, let’s call him Piet, decides to recreate a scene from Transformers using someone’s luxury BMW as a prop. Suddenly, you are not just building apartments, you are building a liability claim that could fund a small country’s GDP.

 

Public Liability Insurance is your first line of defence. This covers insured damage your operations negligently cause to third party property. When your crane operator has a “moment” and turns a BMW into modern art, public liability should step up to the plate. Also, shudder the thought, injury or death to third parties from a falling concrete cylinder would also be covered.

 

A key component is having adequate limits and sums insured. A R2 million liability limit sounds impressive until you are facing a R5 million Bentley claim plus consequential losses, legal costs and the owner’s therapy bills for witnessing their automotive baby being crushed. It becomes unquantifiable when human beings are injured, so the higher your liability limit, the better. Think R20m plus.

 

Rather spend premium on catastrophe loss risks like this, instead of on cellphone insurance. Not that cellphone insurance is an unwise decision. It just that losing your cellphone or similar low valued assets will not financially ruin you. Inadequate liability insurance may.

 

CSI, “Construction Site Edition”

 

When a construction incident obliterates a vehicle like this, the claims investigation usually resembles a cross between a legal thriller and a technical documentary. Here is what will most probaby happen:

 

Step 1: The Blame Game Olympics Everyone points fingers faster than a Cape Town taxi changing lanes. The contractor blames the crane operator. The crane operator blames the equipment. The equipment manufacturer blames the wind. The wind blames climate change.

 

Step 2: The Technical Inquisition Loss adjusters descend like locusts, armed with clipboards, AI, cameras and an alarming knowledge of crane operating procedures. They will examine:

• Equipment maintenance records
• Operator qualifications and sobriety
• Weather conditions at the time
• Site safety protocols
• Whether the vehicle was legally parked
• The contracts, who is responsible for what
• How all of this is covered or not covered in your insurance contract

Step 3: The Legal Dance Off Lawyers emerge from the woodwork like termites after rain, armed with case law and an encyclopedic knowledge of insurance policy exceptions. They will debate proximate cause until the cows come home, asking cui bono (who benefits), while navigating the labyrinth of overlapping cover and competing claims.

 

Prevention, The Art of Not Crushing Expensive Cars

 

For contractors, prevention always beats cure, like braai beats microwave food. Consider these risk mitigation strategies:

 

Site Security Perimeters: Establish exclusion zones wider than a taxi’s turning circle. No passersby, vehicles or other third party property should be within crane operating radius, regardless of how convenient that parking spot looks.

Real Time Monitoring: GPS tracking on all equipment, with automatic alerts when operations occur near the site boundary.

Enhanced Training: Ensure crane operators understand that precision matters more than speed.

Weather Protocols: Wind limits are not suggestions, they must be acted on. A gust of Cape Town wind can easily turn a routine lift into an expensive disaster.

 

The Bottom Line

 

Here is how the cookie crumbles:

 

For Car Owners: Comprehensive insurance is not optional, it is essential. Your car can be destroyed by forces completely beyond your control. Motor Third Party Liability cover protects other people from you, comprehensive cover protects you from the universe’s sense of humor.

 

For Contractors: Public Liability insurance with adequate limits is not just wise, it is essential. Why? The cost of proper insurance cover is insignificant compared to a single uninsured catastrophic loss.

 

For Everyone Else: Construction sites and expensive cars mix about as well as sharks and swimming pools. If you must park near active construction, choose your spot like your financial future depends on it, because it may.

 

When The Dust Settles

 

The next time you drive past a construction site, remember our friend Hennie and his unfortunate BMW.

 

In the grand scheme of things, these incidents are rare. But that is precisly why insurance was invented, the losses of the few are paid from the premiums of the many (the classic insurance pooling system). But when they happen, they can happen spectacularly, with catastrophic financial consequences that cascade through insurance policies, legal proceedings and family dinner conversations for years to come.

 

Word to the wise.

Review your insurance now, before a claim blindsides you. Be risk aware, like where you park and what you insure. And partner with a professional Risk Advisor who fights for what you have built with purpose and grit.