Whiplash injury news
18/01/2011

Coach accident prompts possible whiplash injury fraud

Potentially-fraudulent whiplash injury claims, made by members of the English Defence League who were in a coach accident in Preston, are being resisted by the owners of the coach in which they were travelling.

They say only 25 passengers were on board the vehicle but 78 people have tried to seek compensation.

The situation arose from a trip by party supporters from Gateshead who went to a rally where the vehicle was in a minor collision.

A spokeswoman for the coach firm said that within days of the incident, involving the 57-seater coach, dozens of EDL supporters had contacted the business complaining of whiplash injury and seeking details of the firm's insurance company to make a claim.

She suggested that if EDL members had suffered from whiplash injuries they could have been caused during fighting with police when the rally turned violent.

The driver expressed amazement that anyone could have been hurt in the coach crash in December 2010 because there was not more than a scratch on the back corner of the vehicle.