UK no longer insuring side facing seats

[CARDEEP]

Dear all

I hereby wish to bring to your attention the fact that in UK vehicles with side facing seats are no longer insured by leading insurers, citing the reason as "unacceptable risk of bodily injury". Here, is the report:

UK insurers in retreat from side-seat Defenders | Autocar

What is the case in India vehicles with side facing seats (mainly MUVs/ SUVs), as in UK this was a clause in the fine print until pointed out by Autocar-UK, after which the insurers have agreed to put this clause in prominence? Its repercussion could have a major impact in India (as well) because many of these vehicles are used commercially.

I believe sooner or later the Indian Insurance Companies will start following this, but corrective action needs to be undertaken by the auto majors.

Hope this helps those planning such vehicles in future.

Regards
Cardeep

[1100D]

I am not sure of this should only apply to new vehicles. Infact there was a certain legislation against side facing seats to which our Tata Safari's saleability got impacted.

But for vehicles sold long ago, insured earlier, it wont be justified to suddenly refusing to insure them based on new finding. At most they can do is to raise premiums.

[shankar.balan]

The side facing jump seats are indeed quite horrible and dangerous as well.
I think it is a good initiative on the insurers part.
However, expecting the Indian insurers to follow suit may not be practical given that we are not very bothered overall about safety.

The other point which I suddenly remembered is how do the Indian Insurers insure vehicles with those horrendous after market LPG gas fitments? Isn't that terribly unsafe?

[CARDEEP]

I believe the Indian Insurers (especially those whose foreign partner is based in the developed nations) will follow this approach... one needs to be careful & read the fine print carefully.