U.K.’s Norwich Union’s “Bizarre Motor Claims” Roundup

Frozen squirrels and falling reindeer top the list of the U.K.’s Norwich Union’s strangest recent automobile related insurance claims. The U.K insurer, a division of Aviva Plc, notes that “freak incidents involving animals top the list when it comes to bizarre motor claims.”
The second biggest cause of strange claims is food.

In addition to the incident in which “a frozen squirrel fell out of a tree and crashed through the windscreen on to the passenger seat,” Norwich’s “weirdest claims it received in 2005” are listed as follows
1. “The car was parked when a reindeer fell on the bonnet of my car”
2. “As I was driving round a bend, when one of the doors opened and a frozen kebab flew out, hitting and damaging a passing car”
3. “A herd of cows licked my car and caused damage to the paintwork”
4. “A zebra collided with my car when I was at a safari park”
5. “While I was waiting at traffic lights, a wasp went down my trouser leg which made me hit the accelerator and prang the car in front”
6. “I couldn’t brake because a potato was logged behind the brake”
7. “My parked car was hit by a bull which had escaped from an agricultural show”
8. “A cow jumped on my quad bike”
9. “As I came over a hill, I hit a cow in the middle of the road, which then hit the bonnet and shattered the windscreen with its rear end.” (The cow survived).

Norwich Union’s Sally Leeman commented: “Who would have thought that frozen squirrels and potatoes could be such hazards! We see a lot of strange claims but we were surprised at how many involved animals and food, of all things. We can hardly tell drivers to beware of flying kebabs and frozen squirrels when they’re on the roads, but this shows how important it is to be aware of what’s going on around you at all times.”