Flood-hit vehicle owners can seek compensation
Insurance experts advise that the owners of Wednesday’s flood-hit vehicles can approach the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) or the Ministry of Municipality and Urban Planning for compensation.
Talking to Al Arab, a section of Insurance advisors said the vehicle owners are not eligible for claiming compensation for their damaged vehicles as natural calamities are not covered udner the existing automobile insurance policy in Qatar.
Dozens of motorists were stranded on Salwa Road underpass following Wednesday’s flood.
“The owners of the damaged vehicles can legally approach Ashghal or the ministry for compensation, as both are primarily responsible for the flooding of the underpass,” the daily quoted an expert as saying.
It said the sewage network linking Salwa Road and Abu Hamour was supposed to open to the sea. Though, the Salwa Road and Abu Hamour networks were linked, the network that opens to the sea was not in operational, which led to the flooding of the underpass.
“Either Ashghal or the ministry must own up the responsibility for the mess. The owners can approach either,” Al Arab quoted another expert as saying.
The flooding has raised the question whether insurance companies must cover natural calamities like floods in Qatar.
Meanwhile, Al Sharq said Ashghal had put a system in place to store storm water temporarily in the Salwa Road network. Ashghal had been perfectly draining it out during rainy days. However, the process went haywire on Wednesday because of the unprecedented downpour, it said.
Mishaal Al Dahnim, an engineer, said the contracting company must be held responsible for the maintenance of damaged vehicles.
However, he said in terms of traffic management, the Salwa Road is one of the best.
Fawaz Al Ansi, another expert, said the flooding raised serious questions about designing and executing road projects.
“Qatar must tighten its scrutiny on government projects. They must be subjected to rigorous inspection and continuous monitoring during phases of execution before rushing to inaugurate them,” he said.
The best calculation is let someone lead the way, just like those drivers who opted to watch and wait. But in that scenario, I will not choose to lead.
of course , the one with a normal working brain can easily calculate the water levels !
You can't tell the water level from a distance, by the time you get there ,it could be too late and the water level is already above your car exhaust level.
Lol da_ruru. Maybe now someone should add to the car manuals - "this is a car, not a boat. Do not use it to cross deep water."
"If it's not written in the car manual, it doesn't mean it can."
If someone drives willingly into 50cm of water, then I think we can assume that they know less than a contractor, and a baker, and a gardener, and a 5 year old child.
Da..were the contractor aware about this before making these tunnels...for sure the driver is not that knowledgeable than the contractor
@BB were they able to utilize the only option they opted?
If driver mistake then how will he pass the tunnel...it is like one way with no option
Although there was a technical issue from the planning side, the driver's stupidity and inability to take some mature decision resulted in spoiling their own cars.The funniest thing is that the government is trying to prove that the mistake is not of those stupid drivers !
That's ridiculous. So I can just drive my car into deep water, and when the car is cancelled I go and complain to Ashghal? These people don't deserve compensation for their own stupidity. Anyone with a brain knows that you can't drive a car through deep water.
Neither insurances nor ashghal should be responsible for damaged vehicles by the flood. The driver is the sole responsible for damaging his own car by driving through the high level water. He could have stopped instead of going through the flooded area which was visibly impossible to drive through by regular cars.
But the flood was already visible when the car continued to pass. It was wrong judgement I presume.