Video: Data from motor crashes will help reduce fraudulent claims

Post attended a live crash demonstration at Bruntingthorpe Airfield and Proving Ground in Leicestershire on 20 June.

The data generated from the crash will help investigators determine which crashes are genuine, and which are staged for fraudulent claims.

The Institute of Traffic Accident Investigators in conjunction with salvage company E2E replicated “fraudulent” staged accidents and compared the resulting damage patterns to genuine accidents.

Staged accidents were replicated in six different scenarios with different speeds and configurations. 

Meanwhile, the “genuine” accidents were replicated in a series of crashes with identical configurations using the same type of vehicle, with speeds varying from 40 to 90mph - allowing traffic investigators to see the difference in damage occurring from different speeds.

The data from these crashes will be available in the coming weeks.

According to E2E, the data from the low-speed impact site will be a valuable asset in considering damage consistency in claims where fraud is suspected.

Equally, in rear-end collisions, the database of damage gives an indicator of the velocity change, which is useful for medical experts in determining the likelihood of genuine whiplash injuries.

Neil Joslin, chief operating officer at E2E, said: “We had two different things going on, so we had high-speed crashes, and they are very important because it helps everybody involved in high-speed crashes understand what 50mph impact looks like and that can help paramedics when they turn up to the scene to treat somebody that was involved in a high-speed crash like that.

“In addition for the low-speed crashes, people were really interested in those because we have been seeing genuine low-speed crashes and staged low-speed crashes, and just looking at the different damage that comes out of that.

“Overall, there is a lot of knowledge and expertise that has been taken away from looking at the different crashes that have been going on.”

Joslin added that using the insight to help traffic accident investigators and claims professionals spot staged crashes is the key.

He said: “These kinds of crashes do need to be investigated and certainly the experience the investigators have got by looking at those crashes has been invaluable to spot which crash impacts are genuine and which are staged.”