It has been revealed that councils in Scotland have had to pay out over £10m for road accidents involving their bin lorries, snowploughs and gritters in the space of just three years. The money was for compensation and repairs following crashes.
The figures also show that vehicles owned by councils are involved in 15 smashes every day. Insurance companies charge excesses of up to £25,000 per crash for some councils.
Glasgow City Council claimed that they may well be unique as they choose insure all of their vehicles themselves, instead of paying premiums.
Fife Council paid out almost £2m – while Glasgow City Council had to find £1.4m and has another possible £600,000 in pending expenses. A spokeswoman for Fife Council said their bill covered anything from a mere chipped windscreen to ‘serious incidents’.
One incident which involved a car owned by Glasgow City council in 2007 could cost the authority £110,000 to settle.
North Ayrshire Council had to pay out £18,000 when one of their vehicles hit a cyclist – and a further £14,598 on a gritting lorry which slid on black ice and crashed.
Western Isles Council were faced with a bill for £37,997 after one of their minibuses slid on ice and ploughed into a lorry in 2008.
Matthew Elliot, chief executive of pressure group Taxpayers’ Alliance, said that he thought it was ‘extremely worrying’ that so much money was being paid out, and that although some claims are inevitable, many of them could be avoided.
