Police vehicles involved in 760 crashes in three years

Police have forked out over half a million pounds after their cars were involved in more than 760 crashes in Lincolnshire in three years.

New figures showing police drivers have been to blame for 349 of the 764 collisions have raised questions about driving standards at the force.

The statistics show hundreds of thousands of pounds have been paid in repairs, compensation and legal costs – while a string of cars have been written off.

Officials were forced to release the information to the Echo under the Freedom Of Information Act.

Senior officers at Lincolnshire Police have launched a robust defence of driving standards – and say crashes only occur about once every 29,000 miles.

Fleet manager Jim Ryan said: "Every collision where a police driver is considered at fault is carefully examined and, where it is considered that retraining is appropriate, that will be carried out before that officer is allowed to drive official cars again."

Matthew Elliott, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: "This is a financial drain as well as a serious risk to life and limb."

For more on the figures, see Monday's Echo.