Exposure Clause (Exposure-Klausel)
The exposure clause in accident and travel insurance clarifies that bodily injury or death suffered by an insured person as a result of an accident through unavoidable exposure to the elements – such as freezing, heatstroke, dying of thirst or drowning after a crash, shipwreck or becoming lost – is deemed a consequence of the accident and triggers the table benefits.
- Clause type
- Definition
- Origin/Market
- International programme
- Favours
- Insured
- Negotiability
- Market standard
Standard wordings
- AIG Lifeline Plus LL10 09/22
- GDV AUB 2020
Purpose
The definition of accident requires a sudden event acting on the body from outside. If an insured person freezes to death after an avalanche, dies of thirst after an emergency landing in the desert, dies of hypothermia after a shipwreck or suffers heatstroke after becoming lost, suddenness is lacking when viewed in isolation: the injury develops gradually through cold, heat, wet, thirst or lack of oxygen. The exposure clause removes this objection by treating bodily injury and death resulting from unavoidable exposure to the elements as equivalent to an accident, provided the exposure itself is the consequence of an insured accidental event. Benefits are then determined under the table of benefits as for any other accidental injury.
Effect and limits
International wordings often frame the clause more broadly and treat, in addition to weather effects, unintentional drowning, asphyxiation, poisoning by gases or insect and animal bites as accidents. It generally remains a condition that the exposure was unavoidable – deliberate self-endangerment, such as an unsecured high-altitude tour without equipment, may fall under the exclusion of “deliberate exposure to exceptional danger”, which applies except in attempts to save human life. Where the insured person disappears, the disappearance clause applies in addition.
Negotiation and practice
The exposure clause has primarily clarifying significance in international programmes, where it evens out differences in interpretation between local definitions of accident. Buyers should check which events (drowning, asphyxiation, poisoning, animal bites) are expressly included.
Jurisdictional comparison
The German AUB 2020 expressly extend the definition of accident to asphyxiation and drowning under water and to injuries sustained during rescue measures; frostbite and heatstroke are predominantly recognised as accidents by the courts where the person got into the situation involuntarily, and many tariffs expressly include them in their conditions. The Swiss ATSG refers to an “unusual external factor”, which can include extreme weather.
Legal basis
- CH: ATSG Art. 4 (definition of accident)
- DE: AUB 2020 clause 1.3-1.4.3