ATLANTA – A bill aimed at cracking down on staged car wrecks is on its way to the governor’s desk after lawmakers agreed to a scaled down version of the measure.

Rep. Kasey Carpenter, a Republican from Dalton, says the proposed changes are an attempt to keep rising auto insurance rates in check in Georgia. The bill would make it a felony offense to either intentionally cause an automobile collision or attempt to manufacture evidence for a wreck that never happened.

“This is an important piece to deter this crime,” Carpenter said to his colleagues Tuesday, which was the last day of this year’s legislative session.

Staging a wreck and cashing in on the insurance payout has become a problem for rental companies in particular. U-Haul, for one, has flagged Georgia as the state with the second most incidents reported within the company.

But several lawmakers were hesitant to send someone to prison for five to 20 years for a staged wreck involving any injury. That was dialed back to two to 10 years, and the injury would have to be serious. Offenses without an injury could yield a prison sentence of one to five years.

The measure clinched final passage Tuesday with a 107-to-55 vote, which was a more comfortable margin than just a few weeks ago. House Democrats argued that adding the new felony offense was unnecessary when existing state laws covered the crime. It cleared the Senate last week, 41 to 10.