Brits flee parked car crashes without leaving their details

Nearly a fifth of motorists who hit a parked vehicle fled the scene of the accident without leaving their details, new data suggests.

Not only are the guilty drivers breaking the law, but they are also leaving a £169m repair bill for the luckless owners of the parked car.

The research by leading accident management company, Accident Exchange, shows that crashes involving parked vehicles account for an estimated 700,000 incidents every year.

In more than half of cases (56 per cent), the third party either found or contacted the owner directly. A further 20 percent left a note on the windscreen with their details.

However, of the accidents analysed where the owner of the parked vehicle was not in attendance, the guilty motorist drove off in 18.5 per cent of cases.

“Parked car prangs cost the insurance industry more than £1.2bn annually in repairs,” says Lee Woodley of Accident Exchange. “It’s therefore appalling to think that £169m of that figure has to be picked up by the innocent motorists own insurance policy.”

The Police are involved in tracking down nearly five per cent of incidents where the driver fled the scene.

With more than a third of households owning two or more vehicles, and with inner city off-road parking at a premium, the number of Parked Car Incidents (PCIs) is only going to rise say the crash investigation experts at Accident Exchange.

“The hope is that this is not an indication of a fleeing culture from Britain’s motorists,” adds Woodley.

Accident Exchange found that the vast majority of accidents involving parked vehicles occur in the street (80 per cent) with the remainder occurring in car parks (20 per cent).

The data analysed by Accident Exchange is based on 50,000 claims.