Insurance Companies Fight Fraudulent Whiplash Claims
Whiplash injuries account for 80 per cent of all car accident claims in the UK, but the number of bogus cases is on the rise according to Admiral Insurance.
Whiplash claims cost the insurance industry up to £1.6bn a year, and 250,000 people say they have been affected by it annually; 2,000 of these are left with permanent disabilities.
In most cases, there is no evidence of immediate injury, but victims are likely to experience pain and discomfort due to muscle and ligament damage. This may not even show up on an x-ray, making fraudulent whiplash claims difficult to identify.
Staging a car accident is the new way criminals are trying to exploit the insurance system. This practice involves people deliberately staging a crash on the highway so they can file a claim for injuries and damage to your vehicle. Witness statements will often be sought, but these bystanders are likely in on the scam according to industry experts.
Admiral Insurance has recently been involved in such a court case with a driver who claims to have suffered whiplash after his car was rear-ended by another vehicle.
Motorists seeking damages claimed to have been struck by a car at 35 to 40 miles per hour, pushing it forward with severe force resulting in their injuries. However, the driver of the other car, an Admiral customer, said that although he struck the car in front, it was traveling only 2 to 3 miles per hour and caused a small amount of damage to the bumper area.
The claimant requested a settlement of £6,500 from Admiral, who agreed to pay only £548 for damage to his car. The matter therefore went to court, where the judge dismissed the plaintiffs’ version of events and, instead of awarding him a payment of several thousand pounds sterling, ordered his party to pay court costs of up to £40. 000 GBP.
An Admiral spokesperson said: “Obviously we are concerned about people faking whiplash, as the more money we pay for false claims, the more money genuine people have to pay for their insurance. Whiplash is such a difficult thing to prove that someone hasn’t.” I did not have”.
Barclays Insurance Services conducted research into the causes of whiplash and found that although there are many cases of genuine injuries, most car drivers and passengers are not helping themselves by not adjusting their head restraints to help them limit any impact suffered.
This claim was backed up by figures published by the motor industry research centre, Thatcham, which indicate that 72 per cent of front seat occupants do not.
The Association of British Insurers (ABI) announced the development of a new aid to help insurers more quickly identify people who have suffered potentially serious neck injuries to enable them to receive the best medical care as soon as possible.
ABI said that while most people recover from whiplash injuries relatively quickly, some cases can lead to “significant long-term problems” such as disabling pain and depression.
Malcolm Tarling, an ABI spokesman, said: “Insurers are determined to do everything they can to expose these hoaxes so that more time can be spent treating genuine whiplash claimants.”