REP MIKE COLLINS: Staged car crash fraud puts all of us at risk. Congress and the Justice Dept can stop it

Cornelius Garrison was murdered in New Orleans in 2020. He had been cooperating with federal authorities investigating a crash-for-cash insurance fraud scheme. For years, Garrison helped stage car crashes, directing participants to purposefully crash into trucks with the hopes of extracting a settlement from their companies. He would then funnel the passengers from these choreographed car wrecks to billboard attorney Vanessa Motta’s law firm, who would then file knowingly fraudulent lawsuits. For agreeing to expose this crime network, Garrison lost his life.  

Nine defendants now face charges related to this particular staged automobile collision scheme, according to an indictment from the U.S. Department of Justice. So far, more than 63 individuals have been charged in a federal probe of staged car crashes in the New Orleans metro area. Unfortunately, these tactics are not isolated to New Orleans. They are occurring in cities across this country.  
 
Criminal networks across the United States are choreographing collisions with trucks, rideshare cars and private motorists, causing injuries, and eventually siphoning settlements that the rest of us ultimately fund.  

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Congress can stop it. Earlier this month, I led a group of U.S. representatives in calling United States Attorney General Pam Bondi to create a federal task force to investigate and prosecute these rings, helping to shut them down. The Trump administration should launch it now.  

Today, motorists face choreographed threats when they drive on America’s roads. It may look like two sedans boxing in an eighty-thousand-pound tractor-trailer. The lead car slams the brakes. Physics takes over. Moments later, the truck has "rear-ended" a vehicle whose drivers set the whole scheme in motion. They call a lawyer. Lawsuits are filed. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud says such scams help drain $308 billion annually from the U.S. economy, including $45 billion in property-and-casualty lines.  

Commercial vehicles, including truck drivers and rideshares, are easy targets to these criminal networks because the liability limits are high, and juries often blame the big trucks and commercial companies. Premiums for independent truckers have jumped nearly 50% in three years.  

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In my home state of Georgia, 23% of every Uber ride goes directly into insurance costs. Fewer trucks on America’s roads mean higher freight rates and thinner inventories. Every shopper pays the price.  

This fraud also corrodes the rule of law. Free markets can function only when real risk, not manufactured danger, sets the price of insurance. Honest drivers subsidize this deceit. The reach and breadth of this fraud is staggering.  

In New York, ground zero of the so-called "fraudemic," a surge of staged-accident lawsuits and collusion between plaintiff lawyers and medical providers triggered investigations that forced one billboard attorney firm to drop hundreds of bogus claims. Since 2014, there have been 63 investigations involving U-Haul-related fraud, resulting in 47 arrests, including 20 criminal cases opened in 2019 alone.  

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A focused federal task force could put a stop to this. Stronger laws must also back the effort. I have introduced the "Staged Accident Fraud Prevention Act." It would make causing a crash for a payday a specific federal crime with hard prison time. Fraud is already illegal, but current penalties were written for one-off crashes, not the exploding cottage industry of assembly-line scams, causing million-dollar payouts. The law should match the crime.  

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This bill still ensures justice for those who have been harmed in an accident. Genuine victims would still get their day in court. What vanishes is the incentive to invent injuries or recruit passengers as props.  

Consumers would benefit first. Lower fraud losses mean lower premiums. Small trucking operators would stay in business. Rideshare passengers would see relief in the form of their total ride cost. Roads would grow safer.  

Support for broad reform is growing. The American Trucking Association, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, and rideshare companies like Uber have all called for quick action in launching a task force. These organizations are on the road every day and see it firsthand.  

The path forward is clear. The Department of Justice should launch the task force. Congress should pass the prevention act. Staged-accident fraud may not lead cable news segments nightly, but it drains wallets and endangers lives. Congress can — and should — end it.  

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