Drivers warned of Lincoln’s trees (From Campaign Series)

Drivers warned of Lincoln’s trees

1:10pm Friday 5th February 2010

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MOTORIST'S should look out for Lincoln's trees, Durham's lampposts and Halifax's walls, a survey has said.

Lincoln tops the list for claims for crashes involving trees over the last five years, the poll by insurance company elephant.co.uk found.

The next worst places for tree accidents are Shrewsbury in Shropshire and Taunton in Somerset.

Durham, followed by Blackpool and Halifax in West Yorkshire, has the highest incidence of lamppost claims, and Halifax is closely followed by Orkney and Huddersfield for claims where the driver has hit a wall.

Scottish drivers are most likely to hit an animal, with Inverness motorists putting in the most "creature" claims, followed closely by Perth, Dumfries, Orkney and Aberdeen.

Some of the more unusual claims include incidents involving vehicles striking badgers, monkeys, swans, horses and cows, with one policyholder hitting a rabbit which, despite its small size, wrote off the car.

Elephant.co.uk managing director Brian Martin said: "Of course, any car accident is distressing, whether you hit another vehicle, an animal or an inanimate object, but we were interested in seeing if there were any trends.

"Not surprisingly, Scots were the most likely to hit an animal, as you would expect to find more wild and farm animals in more rural areas.

"However, it was unclear why we would see more collisions with lampposts, trees and walls in the other areas. It's difficult to see why these towns in particular would top the list for these types of accidents."

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