“Crash-for-cash” incidents cost the insurance industry £392m in 2012 and accounted for 69,500 personal injury claims.
Cobra believes the video footage obtained from front-facing cameras, which is admissible evidence in court, could rapidly disprove the growing number of such claims and offer much-needed protection to the freight industry.
Commenting on the announcement, Cobra UK managing director Andrew Smith said: ‘Crash-for-cash is an industry-wide issue and it is important the freight industry works together to combat it. By approaching the Government with solutions we hope they can act upon these and recognise this growing issue is costing freight operators valuable time and money as well as putting drivers in danger.’
A number of freight drivers have already reacted to the increase and have installed “dash-cams” in their vehicles to record the view through the windscreen to protect themselves and capture footage before, during and after a potential collision. As a result, Cobra has experienced an increased interest in its Global Live Mobile CCTV security system, which is offered to commercial vehicle drivers.
The system provides live video streaming of the interior and exterior of the vehicle 24/7 from two to 16 cameras, which can be monitored by the fleet operators themselves or via Cobra’s dedicated Independent Monitoring Centre.
Just last year, video evidence from an HGV’s on-board camera was used to help convict a gang who deliberately drove into the vehicle in an attempt to make a fraudulent insurance claim. In a separate case, a motorist was disqualified for 12 months because of footage taken on a front-facing camera that showed him attempting a dangerous overtaking manoeuvre.
As well as for proving innocence following a collision, on-board footage can also be used by drivers to show they were not lane-hogging or tailgating; offences that now carry a £100 fine and three penalty points.