Pub2-2021-Issue3

KyTrucking.net 23 “One of the things that seems to be also true across all aspects of insurance fraud: The fraudsters are smarter than people often give them credit for.” – Matthew Smith, Executive Director, Coalition Against Insurance Fraud which represents insurance companies, and the Consumer Federation of America, a consumer advocate organization. The groups came together to target insurance fraud, which Smith called “the crime we all pay for.” Smith said many staged accidents occur on larger roadways and interstate highways. Crooks will stake out areas where they are sure there are no cameras. Sometimes they will stage accidents shortly after a rainstorm because the wet roads make it harder for the big rig to stop. Sometimes they will commit the crime in the early morning hours because fewer witnesses will be present. “One of the things that seems to be also true across all aspects of insurance fraud: The fraudsters are smarter than people often give them credit for,” he said. Fraudsters use a variety of methods to try to bait truck and passenger drivers into an accident. One is the “swoop and squat,” where one motorist will settle in front of the truck and then another motorist will cut in front of that vehicle. Then the middle vehicle will hit the brakes, causing an accident blamed on the truck. Rear-end collisions pay out more therapy and medical claims because of neck and back injuries. Other tricks include a simple sideswipe where a passenger vehicle enters the truck’s lane, hits the truck and then the fraudster claims the truck came into their lane. In the “wave-in” method, a motorist at an intersection will signal to another driver that the coast is clear, but it’s a setup for another car to be hit. Once the “accident” occurs, the wave-in driver disappears. Fraudsters using the T-bone method wait at an intersection, strike another vehicle and have a witness planted who claims the victim ran a stop sign. What kind of driver would purposely let himself be hit by a big rig? Someone who wants money. Smith said perpetrators have an advantage over regular accident victims because they are prepared and even trained. “If you’re in a staged accident and you’re in the middle vehicle that’s in the swoop and squat, you know exactly what’s going to happen, and you know the speed that you want to be at,” Smith said. “Some of these are even trained people who’ve done this multiple times under multiple identities. So they know the correct speed to go, they know when to brake, they know how to brace themselves for the impact itself, and they know exactly what is going to happen.” Capturing Evidence How can trucking companies defend themselves? The first, most basic tool is to equip their cabs with video. As Smith explained, “If we say a picture is worth a thousand words, literally the video to be able to show to law enforcement, to be able to show in a court of law is worth 10,000 to 100,000 words.” Jim Angel, vice president of video telematics for EROAD, said customers have told him that after a staged collision, they could see the incident on their web portal, contact the driver and send the video to his cell phone to show the officer. “The quicker you can get that information to enforcement, the larger opportunity there is to reverse the narrative around whether or not your driver receives the citation. … If the driver does receive a citation, then that starts the blame of whose fault continued on page 24