Exclusive: Dismay at £4m bill for police vehicle crashes

THREE Yorkshire police forces have spent almost £4.3m on repairs, compensation and legal fees after their vehicles were involved in more than 3,600 accidents in three years.

Crashes involving the 1,965 cars and vans used by North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside Police cost the taxpayer about 4,000 a day between April 2006 and March 2009.

The three forces have written off 123 vehicles and spent more than 2.2m on repairing cars and vans damaged in the course of duty since 2006.

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An extra 2m was paid to third parties and solicitors, as police officers were at fault for many of the 3,652 accidents recorded.

Road safety campaigners have criticised the forces' accident records, which are revealed more than two years after police drivers were criticised for taking "unnecessary risks" during high-speed car chases. The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) carried out a review in 2007 which found only half of drivers were trained to the "advanced" level required to pursue vehicles and some had not been on a refresher course for 20 years.

The deputy chief executive of the road safety charity Brake, Cathy Keeler, said: "It's shocking that the police, whose job it is to protect the public from bad driving, are being accused of unnecessary risk-taking and are having to spend such huge sums of money dealing with at-fault crashes.

"It is crucial that drivers in the emergency services are trained to the highest standards."

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South Yorkshire Police, which owns 800 vehicles, paid out more in compensation and legal fees than the other two forces put together – 1,173,919 between April 2006 and March 2009.

Police chiefs in South Yorkshire recorded 1,360 accidents during the period after 44 vehicles were written off, spending almost 900,000 on repairs in total.

Driver error was to blame for 578 of the accidents, at a cost of almost 250,000.

The force also had to pay 3,663 to repair damage following 11 accidents caused by animals in the road.

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A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Police insisted safety was the "emphasis" in all its driver training courses for officers.

Humberside Police, which owns 653 vehicles, revealed that two-thirds of the 894 accidents it recorded between January 2007 and October 2009 were "blameworthy" and more than 70 per cent happened on public roads.

Only about one in six accidents occurred while police officers were pursuing another vehicle.

The force has written off 44 vehicles since 2006 and spent almost 900,000 on repairs, while paying almost 500,000 to third parties and solicitors.

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Insp Graham Johnstone said Humberside Police took every collision involving its vehicles "seriously" and more work was needed.

He added: "The general trend in police vehicle collisions is downwards at a time when the force has more vehicles than it has ever had before, covering more miles, in much busier traffic environments and attending a large number of emergency situations."

North Yorkshire Police has the biggest accident-to-car ratio. It owns 512 cars and recorded 1,398 accidents, in which 35 vehicles were written off, between April 2006 and March 2009. Repairs came to almost 440,000 and the force also paid nearly 400,000 in compensation and legal fees.

The Yorkshire Post obtained the figures under the Freedom of Information Act. West Yorkshire Police was unable to provide data.

Nationwide, 40 people were killed in road accidents involving police vehicles between April 2008 and March 2009 – a 67 per cent rise on the previous year.