Several Republican members of Congress are calling for the U.S. Department of Justice to establish a task force aimed at stopping staged accident fraud.
On Tuesday, May 13, Reps. Mike Collins, Lance Gooden, Tony Wied, Tom Barrett, Glenn Grothman, Tom Tiffany and Jimmy Patronis wrote a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. Staged accidents targeting motor carriers entered the spotlight when Operation Sideswipe hit the news in recent years.
“Criminal elements are launching an assault against America’s truckers, in the courtroom and on our roads,” said Collins, R-Ga., who also owns a trucking company. “Staged accidents take advantage of truckers’ high insurance coverage and make them prime targets for criminals looking for a quick payday, saddling truckers with millions of dollars in inflated damages, increasing insurance premiums for all Americans and driving up the costs for every transported good. These fraudsters and their co-conspirators need to be held accountable for their actions and put in jail for making every one of us less safe on the roads.”
The lawmakers said that a specialized task force is needed to investigate and prosecute staged crashes.
“Enhanced public awareness campaigns, increased enforcement and stricter penalties for offenders are essential to deter these scams,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “Holding these criminal enterprises accountable for their actions will send a signal that the administration is serious about restoring law and order.”
The attempt to create a task force follows the introduction of a bill to make staged crashes a federal crime.
In April, Collins introduced HR2662. The bill aims to address schemes involving vehicles intentionally getting into wrecks with tractor-trailers in an attempt to collect damages.
The effort is supported by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, the American Trucking Associations, the Truckload Carriers Association, the Georgia Motor Trucking Association and the Texas Trucking Association.
“Staged accidents are not victimless crimes,” OOIDA Executive Vice President Lewie Pugh said. “These are calculated, premeditated assaults that endanger lives, destroy livelihoods and compromise highway safety. To add insult to injury, criminals abuse the legal system for profit through false accusations and lawsuits, which contribute to skyrocketing insurance premiums for small trucking businesses. OOIDA and our 150,000 members support Rep. Collins and his commonsense legislation to protect law-abiding truckers from sophisticated criminal fraud schemes that exploit the hardworking men and women behind the wheel.” LL
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