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Staged collision awareness the aim of new Insurance Bureau Android app


March 12, 2015   by Canadian Underwriter


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The Insurance Bureau of Canada announced Thursday a wireless app – available now on devices running Google Inc.’s Android operating system – meant to raise awareness about staged collsions.

SafetyMobile app was launched at Toronto’s Danforth Collegiate Thursday as part of fraud prevention month. IBC says it is available now from the Google Play store and will be available for Apple Inc.’s iPhones later.

 Insurance Bureau of Canada SafetyMobile App is available now and raises awareness about staged collisions.

“A staged collision is no accident,” IBC said in a release. “It is a mimicked collision scenario that not only jeopardizes the safety of those on the road, it supports false auto insurance claims.”

The idea came from a car simulator that IBC takes to Ontario communities and demonstrates “a number of driving scenarios to increase awareness of staged collisions.”

The Insurance Bureau of Canada announced Thursday a wireless app - available now on devices running Google Inc.'s Android operating system - meant to raise awareness about staged collsions.

One tactic described by IBC is the “swoop and squat,” in which a criminal “suddenly speeds up and cuts off a ‘squat’ car with an innocent driver,” who then has insufficient time to stop and therefore rear-ends the criminal.

Another tactic – the drive down – is where the fraudster “appears to yield and waves to an innocent driver to proceed with a merge or lane change.” But then when the victim merges, “the fraudster drives into the victim, later denying that he or she waved the victim on.”

With a third tactic – the sideswipe – a miscreant “targets an innocent driver and purposely collides with the side of the victim’s vehicle,” IBC noted. “This usually occurs in busy intersections with dual left turn lanes.”


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