Graham Hill Explains That Insurers Are Daft

Thursday, 3. November 2011

What is wrong with car insurers? Lots as it goes but one of the headings I’d lop a few under is daft. Let’s take the case of bogus smashes. The ones we read about all the time, known now as ‘cash for crash’ incidents, whereby an accident is staged by drivers resulting in a fraudulent claim. Now if you found a fraudulent claim occurring at say a roundabout or a junction, then exactly the same thing happens again a short while after, you would get a tad suspicious, happens again and it’s starting to stretch the lightening striking twice theory to an extreme.

But we’ve now got to the point where the insurers have compiled a top 10 hot spots for cash for crash incidents. How crazy is that?

The cash for crash hotspots tend to be in built up areas where the crashes are unlikely to result in injuries but still enables passengers to claim substantial sums for whiplash.

Now this is where I get confused as Direct line cited a series of incidents whereby gangs target one spot, which they wouldn’t do if they weren’t getting away with it, would they?

One spot mentioned was in Warrington, Lancs whereby their investigations found that there were three incidents involving the same car within 2 hours, the car also had an accident on the nearby roundabout on the M6/A57.

This is totally nuts. It’s costing £350 million a year so something needs to be done. Why does it take an investigation to identify that the same car was in 4 accidents on the same day, surely this should be on a National database that immediately involves the police.

Maybe the hotspots need video cameras installed. Grr this makes me so angry because innocent people are being put through hell because of the lack of action taken by the insurance companies.

If you want to avoid the blackspots they are here. If you can’t avoid them be careful as the insurers seem to be incapable of eliminating the fraud:

	Location
1	Barking, Essex – A406 eastbound, junction with Abbey Road
2	St Albans, Herts North Orbital Road at Noke Lane/Lye Lane
3	West London, A40 intersection with North Circular Road, also known as Hanger Lane Gyratory
4	Kensworth, Beds A5 Dunstable Road/B4540 Lynch Hill junction
5	Farnworth, Lancs M61, junction 4
6	Newton Heath, Lancs Oldham Bypass, roundabout at Manchester Road
7	Warrington, Lancs Grange Avenue (roundabouts 7A,B,C,D)
8	Little Aston, W Midlands, Chester Road near Hobs Hole Lane junction
9	Fen End, W Mids. A4177 Honiley Road, heading towards Warwick
10	Waltham Cross, Herts A10/A121 roundabout