Insurance companies have to deal with tens of thousands of claims every year, and statistically they most often pay out compensation for health injuries. This often brings with it some funny situations, which YOUPLUS insurance clients then describe in their claim reports. The calendar year 2024 was no exception in this respect - the following article presents the funniest stories and reports.
The pavement rose up in front of the cyclist
Riding fast sometimes may not pay off, even if you're on a cycle path. At any time, an unexpected obstacle may appear in the way, which, according to a man from Prague, was caused by a nearby tree. "While cycling on the cycle path on the way to the Thomayer Hospital pharmacy, a tree root hidden in the curb lifted the asphalt more than 15 centimetres while I was travelling at an average speed of 40 kilometres per hour. There was no way to avoid it, the impact caused me to lose control and fall," said a man from Prague in a damage report. A hard-to-predict collision with a moving sidewalk caused injuries to the entire left side of his body, including his jaw, shoulder, ankle and hip.
His colleague from the Znojmo region was not lucky on his walk either, who was surprised by a seemingly calm animal on his way to the supermarket. "I was walking to the store down the street and met a neighbor walking her dog. The dog was looking at me, so without any physical activity I spoke towards the dog: "Hi!". I'm a dog person myself. All of a sudden the dog attacked, jumped on my thigh, tore my pants and bit through my thigh. It swelled up the next day and became a hematoma, so I reported everything to the city police in case the dog wasn't vaccinated." the explanation said. It seems that even an innocent greeting can sometimes provoke aggressive behaviour.
Trouble with the mobile, the cat and the bra
Insomnia and frequent waking in the early morning hours are familiar to everyone. Sometimes these problems are caused by exhaustion, nightmares or excessive stress, other times by the need to go to the toilet. This was the case for a woman who experienced an unpleasant collision at three o'clock in the morning. Her four-legged pet was in the way. "I crawled out of bed in a daze. Our cat was lying on the floor, I was scared and to avoid stepping on him I tried to manoeuvre out of the way, but on that occasion I fell on the windowsill and the radiator. I knocked the breath out of me and hit the right side of my ribs and buttocks," the woman described her unpleasant nighttime episode.
Sometimes even a seemingly banal situation like choosing the right clothes at the wardrobe can turn into a painful experience. "While pulling out my clothes, my bra strap shot up into my eye," the woman described in the report. Unexpected dangers awaited some of the clients even while they were resting. "My daughter broke her nose with a cell phone that fell out while lying on her back," the liquidators read. Non-standard physical activity can also turn into a painful experience, as a man at a club in České Budějovice found out. "Around 3 a.m., I tripped over a pole-dancing pole at the Broukárna bar," described the raucous party in the report.
Remarkable stories sometimes happen to people during normal work activities, such as gardening. All it takes is a lack of light, a little inattention - and disaster strikes. "I was walking past a shovel in the gloom, which I subsequently tripped over and then fell headfirst into a bucket of ash," reported by a client after an unfortunate work experience. There was no shortage of interesting stories in the hairdressing industry either, with the natural urge to go to the toilet again playing a major role. "I quickly ran from the splitting head to the toilet and dislocated the thumb of my left hand while taking off my pants," the insurance client described her haircutting incident.
Hard-to-believe cases uncovered by sophisticated program
Some cases are unbelievable. They can make claims adjusters suspect that the event did not happen at all or that the client made it up. In such cases, insurers have sophisticated programs that can usually detect this intent. "Special software can alert you to the fact that something is wrong. It works with a database that contains the typical situations in which insurance fraud most often occurs. And if the reported case matches them, it will alert them to it. Then the claims investigators take over. They have a lot of experience and can spot the little things that the fraudster may have missed," explains David Poes, Director of Life Insurance at YOUPLUS.
There are also programs that can detect a lie from the client's speech if such authentication is needed. For example, it plays a role that the deceiver gets nervous when communicating certain information. Intonation or pauses in speech are also important. "It can also be a warning to insurers if a client takes out life insurance with several insurers at the same time. For example, it may mean that they already know about a health problem but deliberately concealed it when taking out the contract," adds Poes.
FeedIT/ gnews.cz - RoZ
ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTO - pixabay
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