A new and worrying trend is growing across the uk - people crashing cars on purpose to make money. This page will look at some of the causes of the problem along with how you can avoid becoming a victim of it.
The scam works by people staging accidents and then making personal injury claims. They can make up to £20,000 per accident depending on the injury and claims made but the average payout is around £2000. Since the recession began the number of these claims has rocketed and people are even being chased after by companies encouraging them to make claims even if they were not injured. This is one reason for insurance premiums rising so steeply in recent years.
Birmingham is the number one hot spot in the UK for crash for cash. Gangs are now even crashing into each other then splitting the cash between them when one gets a pay out. Some are staging dozens of accidents a day with 5 people in the car each time, one gang was caught having made over 3 million pounds worth of false claims.
Lets look at some of the classic ways this scam is done.
The rear ender
If you crash into the back of someone it is your fault - end of story. You can only have hit them if you were following too closely, it's a very common accident amongst learner drivers who stall and then have someone crash into the back of them. Had the person behind been paying attention they could have stopped easily. There is no argument, no reason, no excuse. It's your fault.
The problem is though that people are now taking advantage of this and deliberately slamming the brakes on when someone is following them to cause an accident. The people behind should still be able to stop but is it fair when the car in front is purposely trying to make you crash? Let's look at a video to see how the scam works.
This video is being filmed inside a truck and is one of the videos that helped stop a huge crash for cash gang. The black car is part of the scam, he swerves off the road at the last minute to give the blue car a reason to brake hard.
The mini roundabout flash crash
On most roundabouts you give way to the right so the con here is that cars will stop, flash you to go and then accelerate into you as hard as they can and the crash will be your fault. Here's a great video showing an example of a similar kind of thing happening.
So what can you do?
It's very hard to avoid these kind of accidents unless you are highly experienced but there is one thing that anyone who has learnt with 1stDrive will know - always expect that the worst is going to happen and you can only be pleasantly surprised! Keep your distance when following any vehicle, especially those acting suspiciously such as a car full of people with cameras filming you or the roads around them.
Over the coming days and weeks i'll be adding more to this page. Check back soon for more info and if you like this page then please consider clicking on the Google +1 button on my home page or below so more people can find it!
