West Mercia Police pay £170,000 to victims of crashes
The police force covering Shropshire paid out more than £170,000 to injured crash victims in the last two years, figures have revealed.
West Mercia Police saw 35 police cars written off and nearly £250,000 worth of damage caused to its vehicles in accidents between 2011 to 2013.
Meanwhile, there were four deaths involving West Mercia Police cars and four involving Dyfed-Powys Police cars in the past five years.
In 2011/12 West Mercia Police paid out 21 compensation claims totalling £66,164.04 to members of the public who were injured in collisions involving its vehicles.
In the 2012/13 financial year this increased to 33 claims totalling £106,787.44.
Twenty-two police vehicles were destroyed in 2011/12 following road accidents, although this figure dropped to 13 the following year.
Damage caused to police vehicles in the accidents was £145,148 in 2011/12, which fell to £104,656 in 2012/13.
A West Mercia Police spokesman said: "We train our officers to a high standard of driving, especially those who are involved in pursuits, but collisions will sometimes happen in such circumstances.
"The figures quoted included an exceptional year, when in 2011/12 we had 22 such serious collisions and was much higher than previous or subsequent years, where numbers were often in single figures. For example, since April this year, only five collisions have occurred.
"It is not clear why the numbers for 2011/12 were so high: it appears to be an anomaly and we are reassured that such incidents have now returned to normal levels."