RESO Insurance launches "RESO Autogas" to insure risk of explosion of gas cylinders in vehicles

ArmInfo. RESO Insurance has launched insurance of transport vehicles against explosion of gas cylinders, the Company's Deputy CEO Hakob Hakobyan said at a press conference on October 2.

"The decision to launch this product followed the increased number explosions of gas cylinders in vehicles at the gas filling stations.  We have surveyed the market for the demand of the product. 2000 drivers and 120 managers or owners of gas filling stations have been interviewed and 95% of the respondents have expressed readiness to buy this policy. At the same time, the overwhelming majority expressed fears related to the operability of gas cylinders in vehicles", the RESO Deputy CEO said.

According to him, the company has particularly worked out  "RESO Autogas", a unique product on Armenia's insurance market, which is a component of CASCO insurance and covers part of its risks, that is the insurance cases of explosion of the gas cylinders in the vehicles. The policy costs 3 thousand, 4 thousand and 5 thousand AMD yearly, depending upon the market-value of the vehicle, and the insurance amount totals 3 million, 4 million and 5 million AMD, respectively. The company will provide this insurance for all kinds of cars, regardless of their cost, model and year made. Moreover, the damage caused by the explosion of the gas cylinders will be compensated for in all the insurable events, except for the explosion of the cylinders for oxygen and ammonium. The insurance will be provided without checking the gas cylinder functionality. The agreement is valid for one year. The product can be purchased at all the RESO sales offices from October 1. From October 10, the product will be also available at several gas- filling stations, newsstands, in the departments of Passport and Visa Office of Armenia's Police and in the service points of the State Committee of the Real Estate Cadastre.

"The company will be therefore implementing a kind of project, which will make "furor" in the market of voluntary vehicle insurance, as it will incite the drivers to be more careful when installing and exploiting the gas cylinders, and to take care of both their own and others' lives," the insurer said.

Nona Gyurjyan, director of the Agent School of RESO Insurance Company, in turn, noted that the Company will take all the appropriate measures to raise awareness of the installation security measures and will conduct relevant events for prevention of explosions.  

"Of course, the risks cannot be completely liquidated, but I think we can maximally decrease them, as we have developed a product which is available for the large part of consumers and we hope to achieve a scale effect," she noted.

Sergey Hayrapetyan, head of the fire and technical safety unit of the territorial administration and emergency situations ministry, who attended the press conference, presented the statistics of accidents caused by the explosion of gas cylinders. According to different estimations, there have been 8- 12 accidents this year. Since 2010, 29 accidents have been registered which means that an average of 6 accidents yearly occur. 75% of accidents were caused by explosion by the gas cylinders.  "The reasons of explosions are as follows:  failure to observe the safety measures of gas cylinder exploitation, particularly pressure increase during the gas cylinder filling. In such cases, the responsibility lies on the gas filling stations.  Other reasons include violation of gas temperature and humidity, excess of permissible quantity of filling, use of out-of-date, worn-out, and other factors.

He noted that the metal gas cylinders explode more often, but there have also been cases of plastic-to-metal gas cylinder explosion, although they are considered to be safer. "Moreover, most of the accidents happen to old and cheap cars, for which new and therefore more expensive gas cylinders will cost more than the actual cost of the car, consequently the car owner considers it unreasonable", Hayrapetyan noted. He recommends using new plastic-to-metal cylinders of the latest generation, which have plugs.

The Ministry's representative also recalled that 169 gas filling stations have been examined since June 1 by the Government's assignment.

Eduard Hovhannisyan, President of "Achilles" Drivers Rights Protection Center NGO, in turn, noted that the number of accidents could be zero, if the Government approves relevant measures for controlling the observance of the safety measures in the course of installation and exploitation of gas cylinders. " In spite of this, the Government cancels the mandatory tech inspection", he complained.

According to ArmInfo's data, since the beginning of this year 5 explosions have occurred at the gas filling stations in Armenia, killing 3 people and injuring 4. The latest explosion occurred on July 3 at Maralik town's gas filling station. According to Volodya Hovsepyan, Deputy Director of the National Center of Technical Security, this accident occurred as a result of violation of safety rules. The stations in Charentsavan and Echmiatsin did not undergo an examination, while in Garni and Malatia the gas cylinders proved to have some defects. Currently all the workers of the gas filling stations have been instructed to require the drivers to present the gas cylinder documents. A special committee has been set up in the he territorial administration and emergency situations ministry, which studies the conditions of the gas filling stations. In case of necessity the stations can be closed. Three out of the four gas filling stations, at which the explosions occurred (Charentsavan, Echmiatsin and Garni), have already stopped working.