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THE Welsh police force most obsessed with road safety pays out compensation on average once a week to people involved in cop car crashes, we can reveal.

North Wales Police - led by anti-speeding king Richard Brunstrom - has been successfully sued for compensation 150 times in the past three years.

The smashes have left the force with a compensation bill of more than £170,000. Police made the cash payments to victims of crashes for personal injuries and damage to their vehicles.

The figures, released to Wales on Sunday under the Freedom of Information Act, show the force was made to pay out £33,798 last year following 49 compensation claims. In 2003/4 it paid out £60,347 and the year before £76,786. The biggest single payout was £22,050 in June 2002.

The largest number of accidents - 24 - took place on intersections. They have also had to pay up after cop cars backed into vehicles 23 times and struck parked cars the same number of times.

They have hit "animals or objects" five times and pedestrians and cyclists twice.

Cars have also had head-on collisions with other vehicles leading to compensation claims seven times.

North Wales Police refused to discuss the high number of accidents involving their cars.

A spokesman said: "We have no comment or observation to make on these figures."

Caroline Chisholm, of the road safety campaign group Brake, said she was surprised a force with such a reputation for road policing was having so many accidents.

"The police are there to be setting a good example to the rest of the public and obviously they have to drive within the same laws as everyone else," she said.

"But generally, in most cases they are there protecting the public and doing a good job actually catching dangerous drivers and not causing accidents themselves."

In contrast to North Wales, neighbouring Dyfed Powys Police has not paid out anything in compensation in the past three years.

Gwent and South Wales forces do not keep such information.

Home Office figures earlier this summer revealed the number of people killed or injured in collisions with police cars had risen by 60 per cent in Wales and England.

The Association of Chief Police Officers' spokesman on driver training Ian Shannon - who is also North Wales' Assistant Chief Constable - said he was "very conscious" of the rising number.

His Chief Constable Mr Brunstrom, famously dubbed an "enemy of the state" by TV presenter Jeremy Clarkson, performed a surprise U-turn last week when he announced he did not want more cameras on the region's roads.

He instead outlined a raft of new measures, including driving lessons for convicted motorists.