The affected motorist has not yet been able to sufficiently prove that the accident was not caused intentionally, the judge also ruled this week in summary proceedings. The judge therefore agrees with the decision of insurer Allianz not to pay compensation to the motorist from Enschede for the time being.
He was driving a gray Nissan, a passenger car, last year when he was hit by a red van. The van collided with the car at less than 15 kilometers per hour profound effectsays the Nissan driver.
In such situations, the story of those involved is often tested by specialists. The research is a time-consuming process. “In this case, you want to know, among other things, whether the driver has tried to explore the situation in advance,” explains traffic accident analyst Willem Baan Hofman.
“But you also want to know how big the impact was. If the impact is very low, you can’t expect any injuries. There are standards for that.”
Black box in auto’s
Baan Hofman uses reading equipment to read vehicle data and the so-called ‘black box’, the black box of the car. “More and more information is being stored there,” says the analyst.
Technological developments in recent years have made it a lot more difficult to stage an accident. “Traditionally, only a delta V was registered,” Baan Hofman explains. “That says something about the speed change in the collision and indicates how severe the collision was.”
“But the newer black boxes record the engine speed, how much gas has been given, whether the brakes have been applied and that information is already there five seconds before the impact.”
The amount of damage can also be used to check whether the outlined situation corresponds to the data. This determines whether the damage matches the driver’s story about how fast he was driving.
Detecting fraud
Insurer Allianz suspects that the Enschede resident deliberately caused the accident. If this is proven, the motorist will not only miss out on thousands of euros, but will also be classified as a fraudster in a special register.
According to Elias van Hees of the Dutch Association of Insurers, such fake accidents occur regularly. “But the good news is that it is being detected and tackled,” says Van Hees. For example, insurers caught more than 10,000 fraudsters in 2022 and even 13,000 in 2021.
The consequences for those who are caught are not bad. Being registered as a fraudster not only makes it difficult to ever take out insurance again, it also affects the application for a mortgage or loan and the opening of a new bank account.
For those who think they can earn a lot of money quickly, the opposite may be true. “You will also receive a fine,” Van Hees continues. “And if an insurer has to investigate fraudulent conduct and that turns out to be the case, the damage will be recovered.”
Insurer Allianz reports to Editie NL that it is further investigating the damage claim and hopes for a witness statement.
2023-12-20 18:21:27
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