Diving headfirst into murky water: What does the insurance company say?
Anyone who jumps into the water without knowing its depth is taking a considerable risk. Attention: The accident insurance does not pay in every case.
In particularly risky sports and hobby activities, the "kick" seeker accepts considerable dangers. Depending on the skills of the individual and the current local situation, the risk may vary. After an accident, the course of events and the circumstances surrounding the claim are therefore examined and assessed particularly carefully by the insurance companies and the judicial authorities.
It is obvious that in the case of risky activities, the passing on of accident costs to the general public must find a limit. Thus, in the compulsory UVG accident insurance, cash benefits can be reduced by half and even refused if participation in a particularly risky undertaking or sport must be regarded as a venture.
The Federal Court has ruled, for example, that jumping headfirst into unknown murky water is legally considered a dare. A young man from Zurich, who suffered a tetraplegia during such a dare, therefore had to accept the halving of the cash benefits of his accident insurance. According to the court, the accident victim should have known that he was exposing himself to a great risk with the daring and reckless jump (Federal Court ruling of December 4, 2012 - BGE 138 V 522). The list of sports and hobbies considered as risky by the UVG accident insurance is periodically supplemented due to constantly new risky activities (cf. www.svv.ch/sites/default/files/document/file/05-83.pdf ).
Premium surcharges or risk exclusion
In the application for accident and supplementary health insurance as well as for life insurance, you will often be asked if you are involved in extreme sports or dangerous hobbies. If this is answered in the affirmative, a premium surcharge may have to be paid. It is also possible that a risk is completely excluded by the insurance company. Before engaging in a particularly dangerous activity, it is therefore urgently recommended to clarify with already concluded personal insurances whether and to what extent the risky undertaking is insured - under certain circumstances, an increase in premium for the coverage of the additional special risks must be expected. Without checking with the insurer, the "kick" seeker runs the risk of being left without sufficient insurance coverage after an accident.
Source: Swiss Insurance Association SIA
