Woman filmed hurling herself at taxi ‘to claim compensation’
Incident caught on camera
A CAB driver has filmed a woman hurling herself on to the bonnet of his taxi before rolling into the middle of the road and playing dead in an apparent attempt to claim compensation.
Christopher Stewart, of Premier Cabs, had stopped at traffic lights in Blackpool on October 22 when the woman, who had been running across the road in front of him, spun 90 degrees, turned back and sprinted towards his Nissan e-NV200.
In an incident recorded on his dashcam, she threw herself on to the vehicle, pretending to smash her head on the bonnet, before rolling to the road where she lay without moving.
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A man who had been running alongside her then ran up to Mr Stewart. The driver said that off-camera, the man began shouting at him and threatened to kill him.
Meanwhile, other motorists simply drove around the woman, apparently suspecting that the incident was a fake.
Mr Stewart, a former Royal Artillery gunner and boxer, said: “From what I can remember she didn’t really try and jump on it, she just dived straight at the car.
“It was like it happened in slow motion. I just thought ‘what an idiot’ – I knew straight away what was happening. She was trying to get a claim from a big and respectable company.”
Mr Stewart said that when the woman “started doubling back and heading for me”, he was going to put the taxi into reverse but worried that he could hit a car behind him, so stayed where he was.
He added: “If it was real somebody would have stopped, but no one stopped to help. The whole incident is just unbelievable.”
The woman caused £500 of damage to Mr Stewart’s vehicle, leaving a hole in the plastic charge door on the bonnet.
John Cutler, managing director of Premier Cabs, said that drivers should invest in dashcams to record incidents such as this.
“This is what’s going on, people without dashcams are open to this … If you look at the footage she has half a smile on her face at the last second as she’s going to do it. This is what is affecting the insurance industry,” he said.
Lancashire police said: “We have had a report of this vehicle crime and we are investigating a fraud-related offence.”
It is the latest incident of people resorting to bizarre tactics as an apparent way of making compensation claims. In July a video emerged of a moped rider stopping and pushing his scooter into the front of a motorist’s car, before throwing himself onto the bonnet.
The moped driver’s friend had been filming the aftermath of the incident, and pretended that a road accident had happened. However, the motorist revealed that they had been filmed on her dashcam and the pair ran away after she called the police.
Fariha Karim
This article first appeared in The Times
