Shropshire fire chief appeals to drivers after service spent nearly £30,000 on collision claims
Tightly-packed housing estates and more vehicles on the road are making it harder for Shropshire's emergency services to attend incidents, a fire chief has said.
Guy Williams, area manager for Shropshire Fire & Rescue Service, said staff were facing new challenges driving large fleet vehicles down narrow roads, particularly in market towns and through new developments.
Mr Williams was speaking after a Freedom Of Information request revealed fire service vehicles were involved in 39 crashes costing nearly £30,000 during 2018.
The fire service dished out £28,575.53 to deal with collisions involving marked and unmarked service vehicles during the 12-month period.
This compares to 2017 when just 31 recorded collisions drummed up a cost of £50,082.23.
Mr Williams said manoeuvring appliances through the street had become harder in recent years and most collisions occurred in congested areas.
"The vast majority of accidents are what we call slow speed manoeuvring ones," he said.
"Being in confined spaces means inevitably you have to slow right down so if you do clip something, it's at a really slow speed."
Difficult
In 2016, the fire service recorded 42 collisions totalling a cost of £19,859.65.
"It is a vulnerable stat. You could have 30 incidents that cost £50,000 or one that costs £60,000," Mr Williams added.
"There are more challenges now with new housing estates, on-road parking and more cars.
"You might see six cars in a space where years ago there may have only been one and we're finding ourselves driving in these more confined spaces.
"Everyone, including our drivers, have a role to play, whether it be how you park on tight estates or looking out for us travelling on blue lights.
"We don't want to waste the public purse and these accidents are something we do investigate and manage.
"We investigate every single incident including the slow speed manoeuvring ones with minor bumps and it does take time so we're obviously desperately keen to drive down the figures.
"I would appeal to the community to park sensibly, that really helps us. Parking on junctions and corners of tight estates makes it really difficult for us to navigate. Market towns such as Shrewsbury, Ironbridge and Bridgnorth can be especially tricky."
