Parked car incidents – costs hit £1.25bn per year
If you’re a business driver leaving your car in a parking space can be a worrying experience, as you wonder will it be in the same condition when you get back.
It may come as no surprise that every year 700,000 motorists1 shunt, scrape or prang another parked car, leaving innocent UK drivers with an estimated £1.25bn repair bill, according to new research by accident management specialist, Accident Exchange.
Analysis of more than 100,000 accidents between 2006 and 2008 revealed that around one in five of all reported road incidents involved damage to a parked vehicle. With the cost of repair averaging £1,800, about 80 percent of these Parked Car Incidents (PCIs) occurred on the street and the remainder in public car parks.
London topped the tables of the twenty five worst cities in Britain for PCIs, this was followed closely by Glasgow, Birmingham was the third worst, Manchester was in fourth while Norwich completed the top five.
Accident Exchange who provided the information claims that contributing factors to the PCI problem are increased congestion on residential streets and competition for car park spaces.
Steve Evans, chief executive of Accident Exchange: “The problem is only set to get worse. The number of vehicles on Britain’s roads has swelled by almost 10m over the past decade, leaving 35m motorists competing for an estimated 2.2m car park spaces today. The real fear is that one day soon, we will have PCI hot spots where nearby residents could even be priced out of insuring their vehicles.”
Simon McBride
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