One in four motorists have had their cars broken into at, or stolen from, a car park, according to a study released today. And 10% of motorists know someone who has been attacked in a car park, the study from the Norwich Union revealed.
Three in four drivers prefer parking in an open air car park to a multi-storey one, it emerged.
The biggest worries about multi-storeys are dark corners, lack of security patrols and unsafe lifts and stairwells.
One in five female drivers fears for her personal safety in multi-storeys and only one in 10 would choose to park in one after dark.
The study of more than 500 British motorists showed: one in five drivers do not take any security measures, such as checking for signs of interference, when returning to their cars in a car park; when driving alone at night, five times more motorists feel safer parking on the street than in a multi-storey car park; one third of women have carried a personal attack alarm, compared with just 3% of men.
It also revealed that nearly half of motorists say that security guards are the most effective means of making car parks safer.
Norwich Union has now produced a guide to safe car parking in association with a safety group, the Suzy Lamplugh Trust.
