As the Ligo holiday and St. John’s day are approaching, the insurance joint-stock company “BTA Baltic Insurance Company” (hereinafter – BTA insurance) has collected the most striking accidents that have befallen Latvian residents during these holidays – from running away with stolen bottles, damaging someone else’s car, and damaged property by a frightened dog, to a burn caused by poisonous meadow plants, and an injured finger while cutting grass.
As Oskars Zvejnieks, Director of the Risk Underwriting Department of BTA, says, these situations remind us every year how unpredictable everyday life can be, so we should not forget about safety even during the holidays.
Ligo’s evening often begins with practical tasks – you need to get wood for the festive bonfire, arrange the place for the celebration, make the last purchases and welcome the guests. The rush is one of the reasons why people forget about the basic safety conditions – insurance companies In my experience last year, there was a case when a man cut the phalanx of the finger of his left hand while sawing trees with electric scissors. Similarly, a woodcutter injured his finger with an ax while chopping firewood, while another, while sawing a branch of a bush, slipped and cut his knee with a chainsaw.
Also, in general, the campfire, which is provided with kindling, is a place where a series of accidents often happen – every year during the holidays, BTA receives several applications for injuries and burns caused by jumping over the campfire. For example, in one of the cases, a climber, jumping over the bonfire, slipped into it and burned both legs, another fell into the bonfire and got a burn on his foot.
“All of these accidents are classic examples of holiday duna when basic safety measures are forgotten. Also, people are often reckless and overestimate their abilities, undertaking to do things that can result in unpleasant injuries. But in reality, one clumsy movement or distraction for a few seconds is often enough for accidents – that’s how short the moment is until losses occur,” explains expert Oskars Zvejnieks.
This year, the Summer Solstice coincides with the World Cup in football, while in previous years the celebration had to be interrupted by several people who had turned the meadow into a sports field. Soccer with friends, playing with children and barefoot on the dewy grass is an integral part of summer holidays, but it tends to end with sprains, fractures and bruises. In one of the cases reported to the insurance, one player fell on another’s knee during a football match on Midsummer’s Day, breaking his leg, while another football enthusiast ended up with a broken ankle while playing football without shoes.
True, meadows can also be dangerous because of plants – in the application in an accident the child had picked St. John’s wort in the backyard meadow on the day of Ligo, while in the evening redness and swelling appeared on his hand, which the doctors on admission determined as a phytoburn.
During the holidays, you should pay attention not only to your safety and that of your loved ones, but also to your pets, especially if they stay at home alone. In the past years, the company was notified of a case in which the owners, returning home on Midsummer’s Day, found that the dog had been frightened, so it tried to enter the house by breaking window panes, doors and sliding walls.
Among the more interesting cases, there is also an incident near the store – that is, while running away from the store guard with newly stolen bottles and not calculating the trajectory of movement, the thief caught and broke the headlight of a car parked in the store’s parking lot.
“A car can cause damage in the parking lot, but during the holidays you should be careful on the road as well. Contractors go to the countryside, visit friends, return home late in the evening or early in the morning, and the road often leads past forests, meadows and ditches, where deer, wild boars and other animals also tend to “get involved” in the festive traffic. In one of the biggest such cases, a car collided on the Jēkabpils-Rēzekne road with a deer that suddenly ran onto the road, and the reward exceeded 5,000 euros. In another case, the deer jumped from the edge of the ditch and crashed into the side of the car,” says Oskars Zvejnieks.
During the holidays, pipes burst, hoses get damaged, water finds its way to neighbors and damages several properties at the same time. In one of the largest compensation cases, a shower pipe burst in an apartment building, flooding several apartments and causing damage to the interior decoration, for which the compensation exceeded 8,500 euros. On the other hand, the most serious accidents are related to fire accidents – in one case, a commercial premises burned down in a fire, and the compensation exceeded 37,000 euros, while in another fire accident, an auxiliary building was damaged, and the compensation exceeded 22,000 euros.
“Every year, we see that during the holidays, accidents affect not only the contractors themselves, but also their property and cars. While people have gone to celebrate, a water pipe failure, an unexpected fire or other unexpected losses can occur at home, while the intensity of traffic and animal activity on the roads significantly increase the risk of accidents. Accidents can happen to each of us, so safety starts with caution, prudent decisions and financial security provided by insurance at the time of an accident,” he emphasizes Oscar the Fisherman.
