Question: Does Erie's Commercial Auto Policy provide coverage for traffic control response and/or pollution cleanup after a covered accident?

Details of the loss: On 8/28/23 a contractor's employee lost control of a dump truck that was towing a chipper trailer. The truck rolled and came to rest on its side along the berm on interstate 80 in western PA. The piece of equipment in tow came to rest in the left lane of traffic. Emergency services were contacted, and part of the response included traffic control until the truck and equipment could be towed/removed. Additionally, some minor clean up of the truck's fluids that were released in the accident was performed at the scene. Both the traffic control response and the cleanup services were provided by a volunteer fire department near the scene of the accident. There is no question whether the vehicle was insured – this was definitely a covered accident.

Details of the claim response: Erie paid the physical damage loss to the IV. Since this was a single vehicle accident, originally, there was not any liability element to the claim. The insured was sent an invoice by PA Fire Recovery – who contracts with the responding VFD to collect fees related to accident response. We submitted that invoice to Erie and were told that it would have to go to a liability adjuster and not the collision adjuster. Erie then denied coverage. Initially, we did not push back on the denial, as we weren't sure if PA Fire Recovery Service would continue to pursue the invoice with the insured directly. The insured received nothing further for nearly 12 months but was recently sent another invoice directly. We followed up with Erie and challenged their denial, as we believe that: