Police stepped up patrols of the A518 and A41 this afternoon following two reports of attempted ‘crash for cash’ incidents.
Officers say the incidents had been reported between Telford and Newport and involved a white Seat Leon.
In August motorists were urged to be on their guard following a spike in reports of ‘crash for cash’ attempts in north Telford.
At the time those incidents had taken place at roundabouts along the A518 between Donnington and Newport.
What is crash for cash?
Crash for cash collisions happen when a driver undertakes a deliberate action, normally braking very hard for no apparent reason, causing another motorist to collide with them.
Roundabout or wide junctions are common places for these type of incidents where the following driver can clearly see there is no oncoming traffic and so is expecting the car in front to keep moving and not stop suddenly.
Subsequent damage and injury claims submitted to insurance companies are massively over-inflated in the hope of receiving a substantial payout.
It can be very difficult to disprove the generally accepted rule that if you crash into the back of someone it’s your fault.
With individual collisions, it’s often very difficult to work out if the incident is a genuine driver error on the part of one motorist or another and so police and insurance companies have to look for patterns of behaviour to establish if a crime has been committed.
The number of collisions on UK roads has actually fallen since 2006 but between then and now there has been a 60% rise in the number of road-related personal injury claims despite the fact that cars are better designed and provide far better protection to occupants in the event of a crash.
Over half a million whiplash claims are made in the UK every year and insurance company experts estimate around 60% of these are fraudulent.
The latest industry figures suggest ‘crash for cash’ is a £1billion-a-year scam.
Drivers are being recommended to invest in a dashboard mounted camera or ‘dash cam’.
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