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WASHINGTON - The accidents may be shams, but the felonies would be real.

Long Island Rep. Laura Gillen is taking aim at dopes who have been caught staging car accidents involving unsuspecting drivers in order to cash in on insurance payouts.

On Thursday, Gillen (D-NY) introduced the Stop Auto Fraud Act of 2026, which would make the  crash for cash  practice a federal offense punishable by up to 10 years behind bars, with sentence enhancements for smash-ups causing injury or death.

4 Rep. Laura Gillen is hoping her bipartisan bill will become law to give prosecutors a federal crime to prosecute cash for crash perpetrators. CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

 This is a tough-on-crime, lower-cost bill that is responding to the surge we've seen in these crash for cash schemes that are being perpetrated by hucksters and fraudsters across our country, including on Long Island, that are driving up our auto insurance rates and putting drivers' lives at risk,  Gillen told The Post.

 I think this is a no-brainer. There should be broad bipartisan support to crack down on this crime and to make our roads safer and lower costs. 

Gillen is teaming up with Reps. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Vince Fong (R-Calif.) on the bipartisan measure, which would direct the proceeds of fines imposed on  crash for cash  schemers into the federal Highway Trust Fund.

New York drivers pay an average of $3,492 per year in car insurance premiums, more than $1,000 above the national average, Forbes reported in July.

Insurance fraud and staged crashes can add more than $300 annually to Empire Staters' bill, according to data cited by Gillen's office.

 It's not just the actual accidents themselves and the damage to the vehicles. It's also about claims for injuries, for treatments, and in some of these fraud cases, people were getting unnecessary surgery just to make their damages go higher, and so it's cracking down on all of that,  Gillen explained.

4 Video exposed Jaime Huiracocha's and Victor Murillo's scheme to crash cars in order to get insu

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