An article in the Telegraph suggests that the skyrocketing rate of claims for personal injury following car accidents is sending normal insurance premiums sky high, too.
Despite the number of accidents falling and car safety improving there has been a dramatic increase in motorists and passengers saying they have been hurt and seeking compensation.
Yep. They’re called “liars” and “frauds”.
I warn all my pupils that if they have an accident or bump of any sort – no matter how slight – they must inform their insurance company. This isn’t to make a fraudulent claim – it is to protect themselves against the inevitable fraudulent claim that the other party will direct at them.
Over the years I have been driving, I’ve had it happen to me twice. The first one was 20-odd years ago when I nudged a car which stopped in front of me very suddenly in slow-moving traffic. We both stopped to check and agreed there was no damage. But later that night he came round with his dad, who said “I think you were mistaken – there was more damage than you first thought”. He then proceeded to show me a rusty crumpled boot floor. I said “How do you sleep at night? You know that wasn’t caused today”. The insurance company agreed and threw out his claim, saying it was “old damage”. I remember the guy: Mr Wilson – professional (but not very good) insurance fraudster and all round scumbag.
Another one occurred at a roundabout. It was two lanes wide on the entry, but the car to my right pulled across two lanes and scraped down my offside. We exchanged details, and when I got home I repaired all the “damage” on my car by rubbing my front wing with Brasso. A few weeks later I got a claim through for over £600. The insurance company threw that one out as well – it was HIS fault not mine.
More recently, one of my pupils was involved in an accident and she called me for advice. What had happened was that she was driving along at less than 30mph and a car pulled out in front of her, clipping her front offside wing and smashing her light. I asked her specifically if the impact was on the side of her car or the front, and she confirmed it was the side. I stressed that she must put in a claim immediately, because the other driver will do and it will be exaggerated.
It got complicated, because her dad didn’t want to alert the insurance company because “she was a new driver and they will put her premiums up, and they always decide against the new driver.” I told her this was all nonsense, but her dad was calling the shots.
I spoke with her again a few weeks later and she said “well, the other driver hasn’t done anything so I’m just hoping he will forget about it”.
I said “Lyn, what registration year was the other car?” She replied “2007”.
I said “Look, there is no way he is not going to put a claim in with a car that is still less than three years old. And it will be hugely exaggerated.”
I got a call a few days later. She said “The bastard has put a claim in and he is saying that he was stationary and I drove into HIM”.
The last I heard the insurance company was disputing his claim because “the damage didn’t match his story”.
However, a lot of these scumbags get away with it – especially when it involves personal injury, and doubly so if it involves children.
A couple of years ago I was rear-ended on a lesson by an old guy in a Mercedes (it wasn’t hard). I said to my pupil a few days later, after ascertaining he was OK: “If you get a call from a personal injury company, you ARE NOT injured! Are we clear about that?”
Ironically, the personal injury claims are often triggered by the insurance companies themselves.