'One-fifth of road crashes involves parked cars'

As the Christmas shopping period draws near, many UK shoppers will be parking their cars up in and around town centres to hunt for gifts. With the amount of money some people will be spending on this years festivities, they certainly won't be wanting to splash out on repairs for damage to their car.

However, "Around 20 per cent of collisions recorded on roads in the UK involve a parked car", say the Police.

New research carrid out by the Police shows that some 700,000 drivers crash into stationary automobiles every year, and with a busy Christmas creeping closer the amount of parked cars in busy town centres looks set to rise sharply.

It stated that this "may be down to larger vehicles, overcrowded roads and people being distracted behind the wheel".

"We've all seen parking spaces that are too tight to fit your car into, but some desperate people try their hardest to squeeze their people carrier into a 5 foot long space - it doesn't make any sense".

Police are urging people to use their common sense and apply solid judgement skills to parking in tight spaces.

"If you see a space think about if you'll actually be able to fit into it. Many people try to take on a space that they cannot get into and crash into neighboring vehicles".

Such a collision could mean that people end up paying more for their car insurance, as cover companies could view them as a risk.

"The fear is that soon we will have parked car incident hotspots where nearby residents could even be priced out of insuring their vehicles," a Police spokerperson commented.