The Georgia House Insurance Committee has passed state Rep. Kasey Carpenter's bill aimed at prosecuting more people for faking car crashes.
Carpenter, R-Dalton, has proposed creating the specific crime of staging a motor vehicle collision. Under the legislation, intentionally crashing your vehicle for insurance purposes would carry a mandatory minimum of two years in prison. So would faking a car crash or taking part in a scheme that causes another vehicle to crash.
Carpenter's bill also carries two other sentences. If someone dies as the result of this fraud, the guilty party would face a mandatory minimum of five years in prison. If someone filed a lawsuit over a crash that he or she faked, that person would also face a mandatory minimum of five years.
"This is a major issue," he said during a committee hearing Monday morning. "It's costing consumers and businesses."
The committee voted to pass Carpenter's bill. With crossover day this week - the deadline for a bill to pass at least one chamber - Carpenter said he was immediately heading to the Rules Committee, hoping to get his legislation on the calendar.
Technically, some members of the committee pointed out during a separate hearing last Wednesday, the crimes Carpenter is trying to curtail could fall under insurance fraud. But, he argued, a more specific piece of legislation will be easier to prosecute. He cited a statistic from U-HAUL, which reported that it had seen 43 cases of staged crashes with its trucks and trailers over the last two years.
"It's happening in trucking," he said. "It's happening in consumer vehicles, as well. That's the issue: to deter this from happening."
Some Democrats on the committee told Carpenter they weren't so sure about the sentencing portion of his legislation.
"This stuff is really hard to prove," said state Rep. Renitta Shannon, D-Decatur. "And so, there's definitely a concern about giving folks mandatory minimums when it's hard to prove."
Carpenter, who took office last year, has not sponsored a bill that reached the House floor for a vote yet. Over the last two years, he has sponsored legislation that would allow teachers and coaches to participate in student-led prayer and decorate their desks with religious symbols. But it failed to make it out of committee last year and hasn't performed better this time around.
Contact staff writer Tyler Jett at 423-757-6476 or tjett@timesfreepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @LetsJett.