Would you scarper from a car park ding?

Nearly a quarter of motorists didn't leave contact details after they hit a parked car and caused damage, according to a new study.

Research by accident management company Accident Exchange revealed that 24% of drivers failed to leave their details or contact the owners of cars they had damaged, although 5% were subsequently identified using CCTV footage.

That means innocent owners were forced to claim on their own insurance for the damage costing them around 169 million. In total, there are estimated to be 700,000 incidents involving parked cars each year, creating a total repair bill of 1.2 billion.

The true figure could be much higher, however, because in many incidents the damage costs less than the excess on an insurance policy. This would prompt many motorists to pay the repair bills themselves in order to save cash and avoid the loss of no-claims bonuses.

Tell us what you would do
Go to the whatcar.com homepage to tell us what you would do if someone hit your car and didn't leave their contact details. Take our weekly poll and let us know.