The Dangers of Renting a Quad in Spain.

                            

In spain where the sun shines for most of the year, taking a quad adventure trip through the mountain roads and into the pine forests can be an exhilarating experience, gets us into the fresh air and we can have some motoring fun.

Yet few people are aware of just how dangerous quads can be.  These powerful machines are quite easy to roll, turn over, or flip over backwards, so it is important to think of your own safety when deciding to rent a quad or buggy or go on and off-road jaunt with one of the organised adventure tours.

Few are fitted with roll bars, so you have very little protection against these heavy machines rolling on top of you and causing serious injuries. In our view all Quads should be fitted, as standard, from the factory with roll bars. Why isn’t this compulsory yet?

What about insurance?

www.insuranceinspain.com recently did a short survey asking for insurance details and a copy of the insurance policy from several well-known and less well-known quad tour operators in Spain.  Surprise, surprise!! Only one of them was prepared to tell us whom they were insured with and/or were prepared to send us a copy of their insurance policy – and it wasn’t great news.

We did get a lot of cover-up and fob offs such as :-

·      No sorry, in 15 years of operation we have never been asked for this.

·      We are fully licensed and insured and vetted by the authorities that we are regulated by.

·      We are confident that everything we do is legal and above board here.   

So what insurance cover are they using? YOU need to ask and READ the terms and conditions.

The one Quad centre that did send us a copy of their insurance policy to read was extraordinary. It primarily protected the business for any third party claims made against them up to 1,000,000 but only covered the quad user for accidents and personal injury, hospitalisation etc. for a max of 10,000 Euros.

If you read some of the horror stories on the Internet about some of the deaths and accidents that occur in Spain on Quads, you might just think twice, make sure your travel insurance provides adequate cover and/or take out a sports and leisure activity policy that will cover you for most sports including skiing, all year, for less than 80€. – These policies will also cover you for accidents in the home or gardening etc. See the policy details here.

Using YOUR Travel Insurance?  

If you are on holiday in Spain you should have taken out a good travel insurance policy.  A good option if you have got one that covers you for what a lot of the travel insurance companies would classify as a dangerous sport and do NOT include it in their standard travel policies. Check that yours does cover this if you are intending to take a quad tour in Spain. You may have to pay extra to get covered.

Sports & Leisure insurance policies in Spain.

These are great if you are a person that does do adventure, sports or outdoor activities. They provide a variety of cover for all kinds of sports and cover you for less than 80€ a year. Get a quote for sports and leisure insurance in Spain

Don’t leave it to chance – too many people get seriously injured and killed in Quads every year.

Liability insurance.

This covers the Quad operator for any liability that you may do to any third party. If you crash into or cause damage to anything and anyone else it will be covered by a liability insurance (if they have one) – but not for any damage or injury caused to you, the quad or your passenger.

Private Quad insurance in Spain.

Insurance companies in Spain no longer like the odds on insuring a quad due to the high risks and number of claims being submitted for accidents and injuries in Spain and are now hiking premiums.

As if premium hikes are not enough, to qualify to even get the insurance, many are requesting the transfer of house and car policies to them as a lever to providing the Quad insurance.

As we are specialising in Quad insurance, we have a deal with one of the providers to cover quads – without the transfer of your house and car insurance – but we don’t know how long that is going to last – so if you have one that needs cover- call us on   0034 965275727.

As a result of our surveys we have decided to remove all links on our website to ALL quad adventure centers until they can prove to us that they have adequate insurance cover for people renting and using their quads. 

Be safe - Be happy - Have fun - Safely.