Chaotic dashcam video captured the moment suspected insurance fraudsters crashed into a motorist and seemingly faked their injuries before noticing a dashcam on the Belt Parkway in Queens.
Ashpia Natasha was driving on the three-lane parkway at 11 a.m. on Wednesday when a silver Honda Accord merged from the center lane into the left cutting her off, before the erratic driver slammed on his brakes, according to a video of the crash posted to TikTok.
Natasha’s quick reaction saved her from crashing into the Honda.
The unpredictable operator turns on the hazards before stomping on the gas and flooring the car into Natasha’s front bumper.
“Oh my God, what is he doing,” Natasha screamed.
“I just got into an accident, I don’t know what’s happening,” Natasha told her husband through the car’s speakerphone. “This guy just reversed into me, what the hell is going on.”
Natasha claims two backseat passengers used a “tarp” to cover the back windshield so the male driver could switch seats with a female passenger.
Four occupants exited the Honda seemingly acting as if they were injured while they inspected the damage to the bumper.
“I believe the intention was to say I hit their car for insurance fraud purposes,” Natasha said.
One female passenger, who exited from the driver’s door, had her phone out appearing to record both vehicles.
A red Kia, which had been following Natasha drove up to the side of the accident and picked up the suspected male driver before driving away.
Natasha recalled the remaining three passengers’ demeanors changing after they spotted her dashcam.
“They only came out of the car with their phones ready to record the damage to both cars. They were quick to ask for my insurance and quickly left after the exchange.”
The male passenger spoke with Natasha and explained that his wife was driving and didn’t speak English.
“They were very quick to exchange my license and my insurance, registration and everything so I didn’t think anything of it,” she said in a follow-up video.
Natasha had asked the remaining passengers if they could wait till her husband showed up but they said they had to leave “right away to go pick up their baby.”
When a tow truck came to check on Natasha’s car, the other passengers took it as an opportunity to get back into theirs and leave.
“I’m not really sure if they targeted me because of my car or they saw that I was driving alone,” Natasha said. “They didn’t really follow me for a long time. It seemed like everything happened really fast. It definitely seemed like this was planned out for a while. Definitely not their first time.”
The frustrated driver says she didn’t notice the change in drivers or that it was a “set-up” until after she rewatched the video as she was driving by herself and “everything happened so fast.”
Natasha says she called the NYPD to report the accident but was told police don’t show up to accidents if there were no injuries and both parties were willing to exchange information.
The Post has reached out to the NYPD.
In 2020, insurance carriers reported 24,238 incidents of suspected motor vehicle insurance fraud, according to the New York State Motor Vehicle Theft and Insurance Fraud Prevention Board.
Over 18,000 of the incidents were labeled being no-fault insurance fraud reports a 23 percent increase from 2019.