Airbag scams inflate losses.(Cover Story)

Claims, March, 2005 by Quiggle, James

Damaras Gatihi was driving along Interstate 5 near Seattle in 2003, when her car was bumped from behind. Her Toyota Corolla spun around and hit another vehicle head-on. The SO-year-old nursing assistant's airbag did not open. A shady repair shop had removed her airbag and inserted a plastic cover over the empty cavity. Her body hit the steering column so hard that the column buckled. In a tragic irony, Gatihi died from massive bleeding of the heart: it was Valentine's Day.

Airbag fraud is an expensive problem for auto insurers. It also is a deadly public-safety threat that ...