Taxi driver loses car to fallen tree in Rio and discovers that insurance does not cover the damage

A taxi driver had his car destroyed by a tree that fell on the vehicle while it was traveling through downtown Rio de Janeiro, during the windstorm that hit the capital on July 29. He was unharmed, but discovered, when he called the insurance company, that the policy contracted did not provide coverage for that type of occurrence. The car was a total loss and he will not receive compensation.

The case was shown by SBT Brasil on August 1st. “I found out that not paying a deductible, or anything, just doesn’t cover it,” the driver told the station. According to him, a policy that contemplated the risk would cost twice as much as it paid. The report did not detail which product he had contracted.

The gale that caused the damage was one of the most intense recorded in the city in recent years. The gusts reached 105.5 km/h in the region of Galeão Airport, and the city hall counted 25 tree falls in the capital, 21 of them on public roads. Two people died in Santa Teresa, in the center, when a wall collapsed on the car they were in. At the peak of the blackout, 1.9 million properties were without power in the state.

What the policy covers and what it leaves out

A lawyer specializing in administrative law, heard by the report, explained that the payment of compensation depends exclusively on the coverage actually contracted. In car insurance, protection against natural phenomena usually comes as standard. In the residential, it usually needs to be requested as additional coverage, in case of floods and flooding.

In practice, lower-priced policies can restrict precisely the less frequent hypotheses, such as falling trees. The specialist recalled that the insured can request the inclusion of new coverage during the term of the contract or at renewal, according to the rules of each insurer, and recommended reviewing the list of risks with the broker before closing the deal.

Billionaire loss without coverage

The episode fits into a broader picture of undercoverage in the country. A survey by the National Confederation of Insurers (CNseg) in partnership with the consulting firm EY mapped 67 relevant weather events in Brazil between 2022 and 2024, with estimated losses of R$ 184 billion. Only about 9% of this amount had some insurance protection. In the first half of 2025, another ten extreme events totaled R$ 31 billion in losses.

There is also a way out of the insurance market. When the damage results from failure in the maintenance of public areas, such as the fall of a tree that should have received preventive pruning, the owner of the vehicle can file a lawsuit with the government to request compensation, as long as he proves the administration’s omission.