Claimers of whiplash injuries should not be entitled to compensation unless there is objective evidence that they have suffered injury. This is one of several reforms which the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said needs to be considered to reduce the UK’s whiplash epidemic and bring down the costs of motor insurance. Britain’s thriving whiplash industry is now pushing up the cost of the average motor insurance policy by 20 per cent, it is claimed.
Despite a fall in the number of car crashes, whiplash claims have risen by a third in the last three years. Every year 570,000 people claim for whiplash injuries – enough to fill the London Olympic Stadium seven times over. Last year these claims cost insurers over £2 billion, adding an extra £90 a year to the average annual motor premium of £440.
Speaking at an international whiplash conference in Bristol, James Dalton, ABI’s Head of Motor and Liability said: “If whiplash was an Olympic sport, the UK would be gold medallists. The fact that whiplash is virtually impossible to disprove means that for too many it has become the fraud of choice, often aided and abetted by ambulance-chasing lawyers and claims management firms.”
