Saskatchewan Government Insurance (SGI) has issued an apology to a couple it had previously denied insurance coverage to. The couple had claimed on their vehicle’s damaged interior, particularly in relation to its airbag systems, but the insurer initially ruled that it would not cover the damage as it was the result of a mechanical failure.
Barb and Neil MacNaughton of North Battleford, Saskatchewan, had recently shared their frustrations with both SGI and Toyota to
CBC News when it became clear that neither their insurer nor their car’s manufacturer would cover the repairs.
CBC News then ran a feature on the couple’s insurance woes, which attracted a lot of attention.
The airbags of the 2005 Toyota Sequoia deployed when Barb lost control of the vehicle on January 27. She had attempted to pass a semi-trailer on Highway 16 near Radisson when the accident occurred.
Despite the vehicle rolling into a ditch, the exterior of the car was relatively unharmed. Damages to the interior of the SUV were pegged at roughly $9,000.
SGI told the MacNaughtons that it would not pay for the repairs since the “damages to [their] vehicle were the result of a mechanical breakdown.” Toyota also refused to cover for the damages, reasoning that no mechanical failure occurred.
The insurer eventually announced Thursday that it was reversing its decision not to cover the claim.
“In most cases when airbags deploy and there is no collision damage to the exterior of the vehicle, the deployment is due to over-sensitive sensors,” SGI said in an email. “This case was more complicated than that and we should have investigated the situation more thoroughly.”
SGI also confirmed that it was still investigating the claim, and that they apologized to the MacNaughtons.
“We’re also going to improve our process around inadvertent airbag deployments going forward to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” the company said.
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