Climate protection, ecology and sustainability are the goals of our time. This is also reflected in the liability law for vehicle owners. Anyone who causes a traffic accident must also be liable for damage to plants, animals and nature. And that’s where the small print in the policy is important.
Cases in which a vehicle devastates a neighbor’s garden or loses oil and gasoline are comparatively easy to handle. Unless intentional or under the influence of alcohol, the usual liability insurance pays the damage. But if the car crashes in the Rhine or Elbe and oil and petrol leak in the accident, public damage occurs. And this is where the Environmental Damage Act (USchG) from 2007 comes into play.
According to Section 3 of the USchG, the decisive factor is whether the accident occurred in the course of a professional activity. Accidents during leisure trips are excluded. According to the law, anyone who drives to work in their car and causes public environmental damage can be asked to pay.
For these cases, some insurers offer additional environmental damage insurance. This assumes the costs if public law claims are made to the vehicle owner. However, liability for this type of claim is now mostly part of the standard program of vehicle liability insurance, as broker Oliver Mest observes. “To be honest, I do not know of any liability in private motor vehicle insurance that does not include this.” This is confirmed by the Association of the German Insurance Industry (GDV). Environmental damage is already included in over 90 percent of all motor vehicle insurance policies.
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