Sandwell Council pays out £650k on crashes
Cash-strapped Sandwell Council has paid out a staggering £653,000 in the past five years as a result of accidents involving its fleet of vehicles.
There were 744 crashes involving 447 council vehicles between September 1, 2010 and September 30, 2015.
These accidents saw the council forced to stump up a grand total of £653,909.21 for compensation, repairs or replacements from its internal coffers, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.
UKIP Councillor Philip Garrett called the spending 'a waste of money'.
Sandwell Council leader Darren Cooper said the authority did not view the figure as 'disproportionately high', and was aiming to reduce the number of accidents.
The highest single payout was in 2013-14 when £24,514.04 for a crash with another vehicle.
Payouts include storm or flood damage to cars, collisions with stationary objects, and crashes with other vehicles.
Councillor Garrett said: "These figures do make you wonder why Sandwell Council staff are involved in so many bumps.
"Why are they crashing so often?
"I wonder if it might be a strain thing, if council staff are over-worked and trying to hop from one job to the next too quickly.
"But overall it's just a waste of money and the consequence is the council has £650,000 less we can spend.
"We could find multiple uses for that £650,000 across Sandwell.
"You'd rather not spend it on this - it's not good."
Councillor Cooper, leader of Sandwell Council said: "We do not believe that the figure is disproportionately high for the number of vehicles in the fleet.
"We are always looking to reduce accidents – but at the same time we cannot do anything to stop other people driving into our vehicles."
From September 1, 2010 to September 30, 2010 there were 20 crashes, while in the year from October 1, 2010 to September 30, 2011 there were 171.
The largest number of crashes occurred between October 1, 2011 and September 30, 2012 when there were 190 bumps.
In the next 12 months between 2012 to 2013 there were 134, then from October 1, 2013 to September 30, 2014 132 collisions occurred.
From October 1, 2014 to September 30, 2015 there were 97 crashes.
Neighbouring Wolverhampton Council paid out £370,000 in the same period from a total of 400 accidents.
