Tampa Staged Accidents Spreading Like the Plague

Tampa is hands down the staged crash capital of Florida, and their auto insurance rates have been growing because of it. According to ABC News, several insurance industry experts blame the spike on those crashes, which is also known as PIP (personal injury protection) fraud.

The scam is run in a number of different ways. Typically, the criminals intentionally cause a car accident. Then, each person in both cars makes bogus medical claims.

Fraud investigators state that the perpetrators of these crimes are making millions. The victims end up being insurance companies like State Farm and Allstate, and the problem lies in the fact that those companies have to pass the cost to the average consumer.

One Tampa resident, Soraida Diaz, is very familiar with the auto insurance rate spike. She says she’s been driving for 43 years and never been in an accident, but pays close to $1,000 for her car insurance. Diaz eventually needed to ask her son for help in paying her insurance bill.

She stated, “It’s too much for me. I’m on a budget, on social security. I cannot afford it.”

According to the Insurance Information Institute, Florida drivers paid $49 extra last year due to bogus insurance claims. This year it’s expected to be about an $84 per person cost.

The National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) states that Tampa has won the honor that no one wants to win and has more suspected staged crashes than any other region in Florida, with 739 of them in 2010.

Authorities in Hillsborough County are now taking the problem into their own hands, busting dozens of suspected staged crash participants.

These participants now have new ideas on how to fight back though; move to the burbs.

“This crime moves across the state. As we discover the crime and attack the crime, it moves,” said Det. Biff Lagan, an insurance fraud investigator for the Florida Dept. of Financial Services.

Daniel Russo, of NICB’s Major Medical Fraud Task Force, says staged crashes are starting to show up in Pinellas, Polk, and Highlands counties. To help wage war on the trend, the NICB is training suburban and rural police departments, which includes the Winter Haven Police Department, so they will be informed about what they need to spot fake crashes and arrest the people who organize them, hopefully stopping the spread of staged crashes before they spread across the state of Florida. That could result in a potential increase in everyone’s insurance rates.

Some of the information that is being taught to these police departments is how to recognize a staged crash when they see one. Normally, they will involve two vehicles whose drivers are both in on the scheme. There are also some instances in which criminals will force innocent drivers into an accident.

“You’ll notice accident victims won’t want to go to an emergency room,” said Biff Lagan.

This is because going to the emergency room would use up all their medical claim money for X-rays, MRIs, and so on. The crash victims will wait a day or more before they claim their injuries.

“If they have been victimized by a phantom vehicle that is no longer there, they’ve probably been set up for a staged auto accident,” said Dennis Russo of NICB.

Some staged crashes could also involve a 3rd vehicle that will stop short in front of you so you are forced to be rear-ended by another car.