by GREG NIKKEL of the Weyburn Review
As the year 2000 approaches, local insurance brokers are telling customers to be fully prepared for the turn-over of the calendar, as most insurance companies will not cover damages caused by equipment that is not year 2000 compliant.
The insurance coverage offered for Y2K problems varies according to the company, but many will cover resultant damage caused from failure of an outside agency like SaskPower, said Ray Erickson of Prairie Agencies.
Erickson explained, if the power went out on Jan. 1, 2000, causing the heat to go off and the water pipes to burst, the damage caused by the burst pipes would be covered.
What most companies will not cover, however, is failure by any electronic piece of equipment run by a computer or failure due to an embedded computer chip that is not Y2K-compliant.
"I don't think there's anybody in the world who can foresee what Y2K will do. For an insurance company to come out and say we're going to cover it, they might be hanging themselves. For the most part, insurance is a calculated risk," said Erickson.
Close to 90 per cent of insurance companies Erickson has dealings with will cover damage resulting from power and heat failure, although a few companies are saying they won't provide any kind of coverage for Y2K-caused damage.
Jim Onstad of Weyburn Security said there is no company willing to insure against "misinterpretation of data" or a malfunction caused by the date changing over to 2000. Malfunctions may occur where a computer chip only uses two digits to express the year and when the numbers turn over to '00 the chip may not know what year it is and could shut down.
"It's a foreseeable event, and insurance companies are not designed to cover foreseeable events," said Onstad.
If a computerized control on a meat freezer was not programmed to function after the year 2000 and shut down on Jan. 1, the resulting spoilage could not be covered because no accident occurred as far as the company is concerned, said Onstad.
Sometimes the extent of coverage depends on the type of insured perils a policy will cover, said Peter Andrews of Miles Agencies.
If a business finds that phones are not working after Jan. 1, 2000, this is not an insured peril in most cases; but if a furnace goes haywire and a fire results in a home, the fire damage probably would be covered, said Andrews. "A homeowners' policy wouldn't respond to a Y2K problem unless it's a named peril, and even then it's quite limited. Checking your phone or fax or whatever has a computer chip to make sure they're Y2K-compliant, that's really the best insurance that it's going to be working in the year 2000," he said.
Checking the equipment is exactly what is occurring with the ambulance service for the South Central Health District.
The main part of the ambulance service is based in Weyburn with a unit also located at Pangman and one soon to come to Radville. For the most part, the on-board life-saving and monitoring equipment in the ambulances are the key items district officials are focusing in on at this point, said Gene Schmidt, in charge of materiel management for the health district.
A team of bio-med technicians from Regina were in the health district last week to perform an all-encompassing test of equipment that might be affected by the calendar date change to 2000. In a separate and ongoing process, the computers in the office are also being tested and checked individually, along with all computers and computer systems in South Central.
"The target date to have everything tested and assessed, with replacement or upgrading of equipment as needed, is still August of this year. We're on track with that," said Schmidt.
As for the Weyburn Fire Department, most of the required work has already been completed, said Murray Sabados, deputy fire chief.
The department's radio communications system -Fleetnet - is maintained by SaskTel, and a module is on order for another part of the system to make it Y2K compliant.
Department officials also checked their on-board equipment to make sure it was ready for the year 2000. The office's computer system is part of the Local Area Network set up through the City of Weyburn, and has already been taken care of, said Sabados.
The fire and rescue squad is separate from the fire department's equipment but they share the same radio equipment, ensuring they are also ready for the year 2000.
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