This was on the radio today and is very common practice - apparently.
Probably old hat and has been flogged to death already...
...but just in case it has not, I pass the info on.
SCENARIO
You are tootling down the road minding your own business.
Suddenly the car behind you does a TWO car overtake.
It pulls in front of the vehicle ahead of you and for no 'apparent' reason brakes hard and causing the car in front of you to an almost stop. Their combined intentions are to make you rear end the vehicle in front of you and have probably just succeeded in doing so?
?if you failed to keep your distance.
Yep, the occupants of these two cars are 'friends' working together and (if) having now caused the accident they are after, the lead car speeds off leaving you with a whole heap of mess to sort out.
It was reported that this is happening on all classes of roads including motorways and especially on slip road entry/exits and on approaches to/exits out of roundabouts. Places the lead car can make a quick exit from the scene.
AVOIDANCE ADVICE GIVEN WAS THIS :
This scenario will normally have 4+ people in the vehicle ahead of you and the overtaking vehicle will be a single occupant vehicle.
Vehicle ahead of you will usually be of the older type as in procured for a few hundred pounds and there to serve the purpose of surviving the one impact it has to for them to use it to ?cash in? on your insurance policy. The overtaking vehicle will usually be of a higher performance.
So, if you see a car full of people ahead of you and you have a single occupancy car behind you, looking for the overtake, hugging your rear end etc., - back right off, slow down, change your route or simply let the vehicle behind ahead of you.
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... or hit the brakes yourself, reversing the situation and trashing their good car in the process.
Seriously though, thanks for the heads-up.
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Something like this in car video camera for less than £80 might be useful?
tinyurl.com/6y5bgv
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A video camera wouldn't make it any less your fault if you drove into the back of them, though.
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Absolutely. No tailgating, no problem.
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I understand that there is a variation of this which involves a car in front of you braking hard but having no operative braking lights ie disconnected. Thanks for the heads up!
Edited by Armitage Shanks {p} on 11/08/2008 at 18:25
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It's something that's been going on for two or three years now.
From what I remember, it's usually immigrants who pull the scam.
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If the car will still go, one option might be not to stop and report the accident at the nearest police station.
If there are four of them and one of you, it is reasonable for you to say you felt threatened.
If they are genuine, they will contact the police and the pair of you will be put in touch.
If they are not genuine, I think it unlikely you will hear from them again.
Of course, you've still got a smashed up car to sort out, but it would be a lot simpler to do that without claims flying in from any number of supposedly whiplashed third parties.
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No tailgating no problem.
And of course my car looks much more the sort of car to be involved in the scam than to be a likely victim. If I were one of these alleged scammers I would try to pick a rich-looking mimser in a shiny new car. I would suspect my car of perhaps not being insured.
:o}
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If I were one of these alleged scammers I would try to pick a rich-looking mimser in a shiny new car.
Ok. I give up. I've been reading this board for a while now and I can't work it out.
What is a mimser?
I've used the forum search for a definition or a clue but can't find one.
Please would someone let me in on this?
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An expression that used to be used by Bill Boddy, editor of Motor Sport, in the fifties. It means slow, unaware, obstructive poor driver. It does not mean slow, careful, aware driver considerate of other road users. Mimsers can be tailgaters, and although slowness is their thing really, lack of awareness of the appropriate speed for a bit of road or even what the limit actually is are just as important.
Some mimsers are terrified of driving and would really be better off not doing it. They mimse because they are in a panic. Others are very assertive and self-righteous on the road and try to control other traffic by getting in its way. They mimse because they are stupid and nasty.
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you would need 4 of them. Something else to worry about when parking ?
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I wonder how many owners of large unpopular unsellable (is there such a word? ) cars will also try to trash their vehicles in order to get a payout via their insurers because they can't sell or part ex their cars/4x4's?
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I wonder how many owners of large unpopular unsellable (is there such a word? ) cars will also try to trash their vehicles in order to get a payout via their insurers because they can't sell or part ex their cars/4x4's?
Would be very interesting indeed to see the stats of how many of these types of vehicles are already being reported stolen and end up as either never founds or beyond economical repair with a 100% payout?
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I wonder how many owners of large unpopular unsellable (is there such a word? ) cars will also try to trash their vehicles in order to get a payout via their insurers because they can't sell or part ex their cars/4x4's?
Surely the insurers work to market values for their payouts.
So 100% of a severely reduced value is still a small payment (compared with the expected price a year or more ago).
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