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How was your accident staged? That sounds interesting.

patrickyeon 15y ago
One common way to do it is with two cars. The one car is directly in front of you, the second has you boxed in so that you can't switch lanes (a perfectly normal situation to be in while driving). The one in front of you slams on the brakes, and you hit it. It's not especially easy to convince anyone that rear-ending a car is not your fault.
- bryanlarsen 15y ago
  If you're boxed in and the car in front of you slams on the brake and you hit it, pretty much the only way it isn't your fault is if the car in front of you has broken brake lights. As you said, being boxed in is a common situation, and there are a million legitimate reasons why the car in front of you might slam on the brakes. Just because the car in front didn't have a legitimate reason doesn't mean that you're not at fault for hitting them. They could be charged with insurance fraud, but you could still be charged with a driving offense.
rwmj 15y ago
There's a lot of it going on the UK too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11044315 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11044315 A favorite is to stop very suddenly for no obvious reason. Of course, if you run into the back of anyone it is your fault. But the other party will then claim for injuries, hire cars, storage of the vehicle, etc. far in excess of what is reasonable. Insurance companies claim this costs everyone £44 in extra premiums per year.
dkarl 15y ago
They had a car with rear-end damage, and they idled it late at night in the leftmost lane of 880 just around a curve to the left. I came around the curve at normal freeway speed, and it took me a few seconds to process that they were only going a few miles an hour (with no brake lights, either idling or perhaps riding the brakes with the brake lights disabled). I got on the brakes too late and hit them from behind. Something about the accident, possibly a comparison of the damage to each car, set off a fraud investigation at my insurance company, which was State Farm at the time. I don't know what happened after that, because like I said, I didn't really have to be involved. My best guess is that the driver was charging people to stage accidents so they could collect insurance when they weren't able to collect in the original accident. Or maybe he was in cahoots with a dirty body shop and he was helping people collect a few thousand dollars for repairs on cars that were actually headed to the junk yard. Something penny-ante like that. There was a woman in the car with him, and somehow I got the impression that it was her car and she didn't know or trust him. I think she got out and watched us exchange information like she wanted to make sure he wasn't doing anything behind her back. He may have told me the car was hers, but I don't really remember. At the time I thought the whole thing between them was weird, but I never thought of fraud until the insurance company told me that's what was going on.

One common way to do it is with two cars. The one car is directly in front of you, the second has you boxed in so that you can't switch lanes (a perfectly normal situation to be in while driving). The one in front of you slams on the brakes, and you hit it. It's not especially easy to convince anyone that rear-ending a car is not your fault.

bryanlarsen 15y ago
If you're boxed in and the car in front of you slams on the brake and you hit it, pretty much the only way it isn't your fault is if the car in front of you has broken brake lights. As you said, being boxed in is a common situation, and there are a million legitimate reasons why the car in front of you might slam on the brakes. Just because the car in front didn't have a legitimate reason doesn't mean that you're not at fault for hitting them. They could be charged with insurance fraud, but you could still be charged with a driving offense.

rwmj 15y ago

There's a lot of it going on the UK too: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11044315 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11044315 A favorite is to stop very suddenly for no obvious reason. Of course, if you run into the back of anyone it is your fault. But the other party will then claim for injuries, hire cars, storage of the vehicle, etc. far in excess of what is reasonable. Insurance companies claim this costs everyone £44 in extra premiums per year.

dkarl 15y ago

They had a car with rear-end damage, and they idled it late at night in the leftmost lane of 880 just around a curve to the left. I came around the curve at normal freeway speed, and it took me a few seconds to process that they were only going a few miles an hour (with no brake lights, either idling or perhaps riding the brakes with the brake lights disabled). I got on the brakes too late and hit them from behind. Something about the accident, possibly a comparison of the damage to each car, set off a fraud investigation at my insurance company, which was State Farm at the time. I don't know what happened after that, because like I said, I didn't really have to be involved. My best guess is that the driver was charging people to stage accidents so they could collect insurance when they weren't able to collect in the original accident. Or maybe he was in cahoots with a dirty body shop and he was helping people collect a few thousand dollars for repairs on cars that were actually headed to the junk yard. Something penny-ante like that. There was a woman in the car with him, and somehow I got the impression that it was her car and she didn't know or trust him. I think she got out and watched us exchange information like she wanted to make sure he wasn't doing anything behind her back. He may have told me the car was hers, but I don't really remember. At the time I thought the whole thing between them was weird, but I never thought of fraud until the insurance company told me that's what was going on.