Federal legislation that would make staged crashes with commercial trucks a crime is drawing support from the insurance industry.
The American Property Casualty Insurance Association (APCIA) is urging Congress to pass the Staged Accident Fraud Prevention Act (S. 5058), introduced by Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., on July 21, 2026. A companion bill, H.R. 2662, was introduced in the House in April 2025 by Reps. Mike Collins, R-Ga., and Brandon Gill, R-Texas. That measure has been referred to the House Judiciary Committee.
Under the bill, anyone who intentionally causes a collision with a commercial motor vehicle could face fines or up to 20 years in federal prison. Collisions resulting in serious bodily injury or death carry sentences beyond 20 years. The penalty structure covers not only drivers who stage crashes but also those who organize them.
No federal statute has specifically targeted staged-crash schemes before. Prosecutors have pursued these cases through mail fraud, wire fraud, and conspiracy charges, which require a predicate communication and significant investigative runway. The new bill creates a direct substantive offense that explicitly reaches organizers without requiring conspiracy charges.
The legislation targets organized "crash-for-cash" networks that deliberately engineer collisions with commercial trucks to generate fraudulent insurance claims and file lawsuits against carriers. Amwins found commercial auto premiums rose 9.4% in 2025, with social inflation, nuclear verdicts, and reinsurance costs among the primary drivers. The median nuclear verdict in trucking cases reached $51 million in 2024, up from $21 million in 2020, according to Marathon Strategies.
Sam Whitfield, APCIA's senior vice president of federal government relations and political engagement, said staged accident fraud is not a victimless crime. "Sophisticated 'crash-for-cash' rings intentionally orchestrate traffic collisions to exploit no-fault insurance systems, inflate property damage, and file fraudulent claims," Whitfield said. "These schemes put innocent motorists and truck drivers at risk while driving up insurance costs for everyone."
The scale of the problem is documented at the state level. In Louisiana, a single fraud network was tied to more than 200 suspected staged crashes, with payouts exceeding $50 million. Accident fraud in that state is estimated to add at least $600 per year to car insurance costs for every driver.
The problem extends well beyond commercial trucking. The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud has estimated that insurance fraud costs the industry more than $80 billion each year. The Insurance Research Council, meanwhile, has found that roughly 25% of automobile liability claims involve some element of fraud, a proportion that shows how broadly these schemes drive up costs across the market.
Whitfield called on Congress to move the bill forward. "Strong enforcement tools are essential to deter organized fraud, improve roadway safety, and protect families from bearing the costs of criminal activity," he said. "APCIA urges Congress to advance this important legislation."
The bill has drawn support from the American Trucking Associations, the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, and the US Chamber of Commerce's Institute for Legal Reform. The APCIA is the primary national trade association for home, auto, and business insurers in the US.
