r/therewasanattempt • u/PastPerformance9205 • 4d ago

To brake check a truck.

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u/mcshanksshanks 4d ago

Every time I see something like this my first thought is insurance scam.

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u/PastPerformance9205 4d ago

It definitely looked like that. Because there's just no way a sane person would think about braking abruptly in front of a truck that's transporting things at like 70k to 80k lbs of payload.

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u/esemaretee 3d ago

Bold of you to assume that driver is sane.

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u/killerkebab1499 4d ago

Your probably right, but can you imagine the mindset you have to be in to do this.

It's not walking infront of a slowly moving car and being somewhat in control of how the car hits you.

It's break checking a massive truck doing 60 mph, you could so easily die doing something like this.

What place does a person have to be in where they honestly think whatever payout they might get from insurance is worth literally dying.

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u/rest0re 3d ago

What place does a person have to be in where they honestly think whatever payout they might get from insurance is worth literally dying.

No clue here either. But googling the exit names indicates this happened near Modesto California.

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u/[deleted] 4d ago

I have an aunt that used to do this for a living with her ex-husband. It’s ALWAYS an insurance scam. Everyone should have a dash cam

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u/timbenj77 3d ago

It's obviously an insurance scam. There was no other reason to brake. No car in front of them. No wild life running across the road. There's literally no other reason to brake in that situation. Note how they're not slamming on their brakes, either - because they're hesitant to become one with the road. They just want the semi to do enough damage to claim their shitty car was totaled and that they sustained severe injuries.

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u/feminas_id_amant 3d ago

that, or road rage.

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u/Hadrollo 2d ago

Yeah, I'm more inclined to believe road rage than insurance scam.

I do a lot of driving, I see people brake checking from time to time, and I've had it done to me a couple of times. It's usually a reaction by someone who feels they have been cut off or some other triggering incident.

Last time it happened to me, it was a guy who sped up at a merge to try to stop me from being in front - not only did I have clear right of way, I'm driving a company vehicle, he crashes into me and I get a day off and a new car, good luck. He then got in front of me and brake checked me a few times.

I'm not in a truck, but I've seen similar things happen to trucks. I don't know what's going on inside the head of a road rager, but reason doesn't seem to be part of it.

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u/alghiorso 3d ago

My first thought is, "I hope these people don't reproduce."

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u/gfunk55 3d ago

Can someone explain to me how this "scam" works? You ruin your car, and the insurance company gives you a check. Either you pocket the money and are left with a fucked car, or you use the money to repair/replace the car. How are you benefitting?

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u/mcshanksshanks 3d ago

Google: Staged Vehicle Collision and Brake Check Scheme

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u/Hadrollo 2d ago

The two that spring to mind are compensation for pretend soft tissue injury - it's possible to prove soft tissue injuries with a scan, but not possible to disprove them because they don't always show up - and an over-insured vehicle.

I only know of one occasion personally where someone has tried to pull off a similar scam. A woman was at traffic lights, and reversed into the marked security car behind her. The driver of the car - I was his boss - claimed that she had a damaged rear bumper already. She claimed that her bumper was fine, and that he drove into her. This was before dash cams were common, but fortunately the incident was captured on the CCTV of a business across the street. You couldn't verify the damaged bumper, but you could clearly see both cars were stopped and she reversed into him. We suspect that she had "posted" her back bumper earlier in the day in a car park - doing a lot of damage, not a cheap fix - and figured our insurance would be pretty top notch. Had the police not asked the adjacent business for CCTV, our insurance would have had to cover it.