Bill Introduced to Make Auto Crash for Cash a Federal Crime

Long Island, New York Rep. Laura Gillen (D) has introduced the Stop Auto Fraud Act of 2026 in the U.S. House of Representatives. If passed, her law on a crash for cash scheme that causes injury or death could net the perpetrators up to 10 years in jail.

The bill has bipartisan support.

“This is a tough-on-crime, lower-cost bill that is responding to the surge we’ve seen in these crash for cash schemes that are being perpetrated by hucksters and fraudsters across our country, including on Long Island, that are driving up our auto insurance rates and putting drivers’ lives at risk,” Gillen said. “I think this is a no-brainer. There should be broad bipartisan support to crack down on this crime and to make our roads safer and lower costs.”

Her co-sponsors are Republicans Rep. Troy Nehls of Texas and California Rep. Vince Fong. On the Democratic Party side, Rep. Josh Gottenheimer of New Jersey has signed on to the bill.

Insurance fraud, and these particular crashes, add extra dollars to most auto insurance policies.

“It’s not just the actual accidents themselves and the damage to the vehicles,” Gillen said. “It’s also about claims for injuries, for treatments, and in some of these fraud cases, people were getting unnecessary surgery just to make their damages go higher, and so it’s cracking down on all of that.”

Kyle McCollum is the vice president of government affairs for the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB). The bureau said staged crashes are up 35% from 2024 to 2025. They’re up 52% since 2020. So his organization completely supports Gillen’s bill.

“We’ve seen a pretty significant increase in this form of fraud in recent years,” McCollum said. “It’s becoming a very lucrative and attractive form of auto insurance fraud for organized actors out there. It is a highly organized type of crime, and I think it compels a very organized response.”

The PIA Western Alliance state of California has the second most staged crashes in the country. Washington D.C. sits at the top. California’s incidents are 13.18 per 100,000 people.

The NICB says it’s about time for serious legislation to address the problem.

“It sends that signal from the top down that we’re not going to stand for this type of fraud,” McCollum added. “I think it also provides an additional tool for federal prosecutors. Historically, they’ve had to prosecute this form of fraud more under the wire fraud statute. So this actually clarifies and makes abundantly clear that staging a motor vehicle accident itself is a federal crime.”

Source link: New York Post — https://bit.ly/3TfpCO2