Collision Accident with Foreign Car on Quiet Early Morning Road... It Was Insurance Fraud

Attempt to Close Case Without Report... Police Chief Orders Detailed Investigation
Deliberate Accident: Damaged Vehicle Repaired Using Insurance Before Incident

A collision between foreign cars in the early morning hours, which was almost closed as an insurance claim, was revealed to be an intentional accident for insurance fraud.

The accident occurred around 3 a.m. on the 21st of last month on Hoguk-ro in Pocheon-si, Gyeonggi Province. At the time, a BMW and a Mercedes-Benz collided, and the drivers of both vehicles tried to handle the insurance claim by contacting only the insurance company without reporting to the police. However, due to the impact of the accident, the airbags deployed, activating the BMW vehicle’s driver protection system, which led to a 119 emergency call, and 119 requested joint dispatch with the police.

The police who initially responded to the accident reported that the case would be closed with an insurance claim after the drivers reached an agreement. However, the Pocheon Police Chief (Chief Inspector Lee Byung-woo), upon receiving this report, found it suspicious that two foreign cars collided on a quiet rural road in the early morning without any indication of drunk driving and ordered a detailed investigation. As a result of the investigation, the police found evidence that the two drivers, in their late 20s and early 30s respectively, had met with another accomplice who planned the incident before the accident. The police also discovered that one of the two vehicles involved in the fraud was partially damaged before the accident and that they intended to repair the vehicle through insurance claims after staging the intentional accident. Ultimately, they confessed to the crime, and the police have booked them on charges of violating the Special Act on Insurance Fraud Prevention and are investigating the details of the case.

Automobile insurance fraud continues to increase every year. The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) announced that the amount detected for insurance fraud last year was 1.1164 trillion KRW, of which automobile insurance fraud accounted for 547.6 billion KRW. This represents a 16.4% (77.1 billion KRW) increase compared to the previous year, marking the highest amount since statistics began in 2010. Automobile insurance fraud is a serious crime that causes an increase in insurance premiums for innocent citizens.

On the 1st of last month, the FSS announced that after investigating 1,825 cases of intentional automobile accidents last year, they identified 155 suspects who defrauded 9.4 billion KRW in insurance payments and referred them for prosecution. The average insurance payout per suspect was approximately 61 million KRW.

By age group, 20- to 30-year-olds accounted for 78.8%, a high proportion. These individuals conspired in advance with acquaintances or family members to stage intentional accidents to cover living expenses or entertainment costs. Most of the suspects were in occupations with irregular or fluctuating income, such as transportation (delivery) workers, self-employed individuals, and those working in automobile-related industries. Typically, two or more people participated in the accident, sharing roles as drivers of the perpetrator and victim vehicles, or multiple people rode together in the vehicle involved in the intentional accident, playing the role of passengers.

Major accident types included failure to comply with lane changes (62.5%), violation of intersection traffic rules (11.7%), and reversing on general roads (7%), targeting vehicles that violated traffic laws and were at fault. They deliberately caused accidents by not slowing down or accelerating to collide with vehicles changing lanes. They also made contact by not slowing down when entering intersections or when the other vehicle was turning left or right. Additionally, they staged intentional accidents by not avoiding or stopping when the other vehicle was reversing on general roads.

The FSS urged drivers to comply with traffic laws and practice safe driving habits such as maintaining a safe distance to avoid becoming victims of intentional automobile accidents. They especially emphasized caution regarding the three major accident types: lane changes, intersections, and reversing driving.