Accident year

The calendar or accounting year in which an accident or loss occurred.

Accident Year Experience

Measures premiums and losses relating to accidents that occurred during a twelve-month period. Earned premiums and ultimate losses from loss events occurring within the same twelve-month accounting period are used to calculate underwriting results, regardless of when the losses are actually reported, booked, or paid.

See also Calendar Year Experience and Policy Year Experience.

Accident Year, Accident Year Losses, Accident Year Statistics

Method of collecting data on losses, particularly liability insurance claims, that charges to a given calendar year the total costs of accidents that occur in that year, regardless of when these costs are incurred. Sometimes called calendar-accident year statistics.

Accident, Arising Out of and in the Course of Employment

The popular definition of “accident” is “an event that is neither expected nor desired.” The phrase “in the course of employment” denotes the time when the injury occurs, whereas the phrase “out of employment” establishes the causal link between the injury and the employment.

Accident, Compulsory Public Liability Insurance

Accident is defined as “an accident involving a fortuitous, sudden, or unintentional occurrence while handling any hazardous substance resulting in continuous, intermittent, or repeated exposure to death, injury, or property damage, but does not include an accident caused solely by war or radioactivity.”

Accident, Sickness and Unemployment policies (ASU)

Creditor insurance that provides coverage in the event of an accident, illness, or unemployment.

See also Life, Accident, Sickness and Unemployment insurance (LASU).

Accidental bodily injury

An unintended, unexpected injury to the human body caused by an accident or by ordinary means that resulted in an unanticipated outcome.

For the purposes of a legal liability policy, reckless behaviour that results in an expected but unintended bodily injury is not accidental; the injury must be both unexpected and unintended from the insured’s perspective. Accidental injury usually happens at a specific time and place, but the concept of the slow accident has emerged, and conditions like deep vein thrombosis must be considered in light of policy definitions and court decisions. A person injured under a car when a jack slips has suffered an accidental injury under a personal accident policy, but back strain from an uneventful tyre change lacks fortuity and is thus not accidental.

Accidental damage

In the absence of a precise policy definition, the term will be interpreted as common English language usage. Accidental damage is typically defined as “unintended and unexpected damage caused by sudden and external means, subject to certain exceptions, such as electrical and mechanical derangement, inherent vice, and action of insects, moths, vermin, and the like.” ‘Visible damage not caused on purpose’ is a common phrase, subject to exclusions to put certain matters beyond doubt. ‘Damage’ includes accidental destruction but not necessarily ‘accidental loss,’ though where the loss is of an integral part of an item, such as couch covers, the resulting ‘impairment’ is likely to be regarded as ‘accidental damage.

Accidental damage cover

Coverage provided by a household or commercial policy that includes all of the benefits of a standard named peril policy as well as accidental damage coverage, such as spilling paint on a rug or laptop. A loss must be matched to a named peril under a named peril policy.

Accidental damage excess

An alternative term for excessive damage. It is the excess in the loss or damage section of comprehensive motor policies and applies only to claims involving the insured vehicle’s loss or damage. In the case of loss or damage caused by fire or theft, the excess is waived. All auto policies include an accidental damage excess for young and inexperienced drivers.