WASHINGTON — The accidents could also be shams, however the felonies can be actual.
Lengthy Island Rep. Laura Gillen is taking purpose at dopes who’ve been caught staging automobile accidents involving unsuspecting drivers to be able to money in on insurance coverage payouts.
On Thursday, Gillen (D-NY) launched the Cease Auto Fraud Act of 2026, which might make the “crash for money” apply a federal offense punishable by as much as 10 years behind bars, with sentence enhancements for smash-ups inflicting damage or demise.
“This can be a tough-on-crime, lower-cost invoice that’s responding to the surge we’ve seen in these crash for money schemes which might be being perpetrated by hucksters and fraudsters throughout our nation, together with on Lengthy Island, which might be driving up our auto insurance coverage charges and placing drivers’ lives in danger,” Gillen instructed The Submit.
“I believe this can be a no-brainer. There ought to be broad bipartisan help to crack down on this crime and to make our roads safer and decrease prices.”
Gillen is teaming up with Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Vince Fong (R-Calif.) on the bipartisan measure, which might direct the proceeds of fines imposed on “crash for money” schemers into the federal Freeway Belief Fund.
New York drivers pay a median of $3,492 per yr in automobile insurance coverage premiums, greater than $1,000 above the nationwide common, Forbes reported in July.
Insurance coverage fraud and staged crashes can add greater than $300 yearly to Empire Staters’ invoice, in line with information cited by Gillen’s workplace.
“It’s not simply the precise accidents themselves and the injury to the automobiles. It’s additionally about claims for accidents, for remedies, and in a few of these fraud circumstances, folks had been getting pointless surgical procedure simply to make their damages go greater, and so it’s cracking down on all of that,” Gillen defined.
If a staged accident causes critical bodily damage, convicted fraudsters can withstand 20 years behind bars, or life if the crash causes a demise.
Gillen was joined in rolling out the invoice by Nicholas Díaz-Baquero, a Backyard Metropolis Uber driver who suffered a again damage in what he suspects was a staged crash.
“We each had our left indicators on to show, and there was no visitors in entrance of us,” he recounted. “All of the sudden, the automobile forward stopped for no obvious cause, and a driver coming from behind at a really excessive pace slammed into each of us. I had no probability to keep away from it.
“It’s irritating and heartbreaking that trustworthy drivers will be put on this place simply attempting to make a residing.”
Final month, Jaime Huiracocha, 53, and Victor Murillo, 34, copped to insurance coverage fraud after staging three accidents in August and October 2024 that netted their crew greater than $80,000 in insurance coverage payouts.
“We’ve seen a fairly vital enhance on this type of fraud lately,” stated Kyle McCollum, vp of presidency affairs on the Nationwide Insurance coverage Crime Bureau (NICB). “It’s turning into a really profitable and enticing type of auto insurance coverage fraud for organized actors on the market.
“It’s a extremely organized sort of crime, and I believe it compels a really organized response.”
In line with NICB information, stories of staged accidents have elevated by 35% throughout the US between 2024 and 2025, and 52% over the primary half of this decade.
DC has the very best price of confirmed staged crashes in America at 19.79 per 100,000 residents, adopted by California (13.18 per 100,000 residents) and New York (11.61 per 100,000).
“It sends that sign from the highest down that we’re not going to face for this sort of fraud,” McCollum stated of the Home laws. “I believe it additionally offers a further instrument for federal prosecutors. Traditionally, they’ve needed to prosecute this type of fraud extra beneath the wire fraud statute.
“So this really clarifies and makes abundantly clear that staging a motorcar accident itself is a federal crime.”
