By the National Insurance Crime Bureau
According to the National Crime Bureau, criminals involved in staged automobile accidents use script details of the collision and injuries just as movie directors do in movies. Paid witnesses are positioned near the accident scene to support the criminal’s account and contradict the innocent driver’s testimony, unethical attorneys represent criminal drivers and passengers, and unscrupulous medical providers inflate billings for nonexistent or exaggerated accident injuries.
The following are the types of staged automobile accident schemes:
Swoop and Squat
This scheme has two variations. On a surface street, a swoop-and-squat scheme usually involves three vehicles: two are driven by criminals and the other by the victim. The driver of the “squad” vehicle positions his vehicle in front of the victim’s car. The driver of the “swoop” vehicle pulls ahead of the squat vehicle and intentionally cuts it off, thus causing the squat vehicle driver to suddenly hit his brakes. The victim cannot react in time and rear ends the squat vehicle. The swoop vehicle races off and is not seen again. The innocent motorist states the swoop vehicle caused the accident, but because that driver cannot be located, the victim has to pay the vehicle damage and personal injury claims of passengers in the squat vehicle.
The freeway swoop-and-squat scheme works in a similar manner, however four vehicles are typically involved in this scam: three belong to criminals and the fourth is driven by the victim. In this variation, the third criminal vehicle boxes in the innocent motorist so he cannot change lanes when the swoop vehicle cuts off the squat vehicle. Following the collision, the swoop and box-in cars drive off, thus forcing the innocent driver’s insurer to pay the claim.
Panic Stop
In this scheme, the criminal typically drives an older vehicle filled with passengers. The criminal positions his car in front of the victim’s while a backseat passenger in the criminal’s vehicle watches and waits for the innocent motorist to be distracted, such as by a cellular telephone call. Once the victim is distracted, the backseat passenger tells the driver to slam on the brakes, thus causing the innocent motorist to rear end the criminal’s vehicle. The victim believes the criminal’s vehicle “suddenly stopped for no apparent reason,” while its passengers claim to suffer accident injuries. Sometimes criminals will intentionally damage their brake light bulbs so that they do not function, thus providing no warning to the victim that the scheme is about to occur.
Side Swipe
This caused accident scheme typically occurs at busy intersections with dual left turn lanes. The criminal positions his vehicle in the outer turn lane. As soon as the victim’s vehicle drifts into the outer turn lane, the criminal side swipes it. To help ensure the scheme’s success, the criminal conducts advance surveillance to identify heavily traveled intersections with a high volume of newer vehicles, and ones where vehicles in the inner left turn lane oftentimes drift across lane divider lines into the outer left turn lane.
Drive Down
In the drive down scheme, the victim merges his vehicle into traffic after being motioned in by the criminal. As the innocent driver begins to merge, the criminal speeds up and causes a collision. When questioned, the criminal denies motioning the victim to merge into traffic or gives an excuse, such as “I was swatting a fly.” This type of caused accident scheme works well where vehicles have to merge, such as at four-way stop signs, t-intersections, merge and yield signs, lane reductions and closures, freeway ramps, and parking lots.
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