Car insurers will be getting a collective warm feeling with the news that an anti-collision system is set to decrease the amount of rear-end 'shunt' claims they have to deal with.

Volvo, which is at the forefront of most innovative in-car safety features, has developed a family car - the XC60 - that incorporates a laser-guidance device enabling it to slam the brakes on automatically if a vehicle ahead of it suddenly slows down.

The CitySafety system works by scanning six yards ahead and making 50 calculations a second to determine the braking force required to stop the vehicle before impact.

If the driver does not react, the vehicle will automatically disable the accelerator and brake.

Jonas Ekmark, from Volvo, told the Daily Mail newspaper: "It is important to stress that CitySafety does not relieve the driver of the responsibility from maintaining a safe distance.

"Between 10mph and 20mph, the focus is on reducing speed as much as possible before impact."

Meanwhile, there have been reports that car gangs are targeting innocent motorists in so-called 'crash for cash' rear-end accidents, in order to claim insurance monies.

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