CASE STUDY 4

Passenger Claiming Injury Fraud Case

What the claimant alleged

The claimant alleged that he was a passenger in vehicle that was struck by the insured, and that he suffered neck and back injuries from the accident.  It was a minor crash and no passengers were listed on the police report. 

Claimants Vehicles System Status at Crash Event

The claimant signed a “Release to Image Data” allowing data to be retrieved from their vehicle.  Upon examination of the EDR data, it was revealed that the passenger seat was unoccupied at the time of the crash.  This type of information is only available through the downloading of EDR data.  Seat occupancy is a standard because it is used by the airbag module to determine if the airbag should be deployed.  In addition, it can identify the size of the occupant because it also uses this information to determine the strength required to deploy the airbags. When the insured was asked to give an Examination Under Oath, he never responded.

Results

Coastal Crash Consultants  -  1001 Brickell Bay Drive Suite 2700  —  Miami, FL. 33131  —  305-915-8480