Christmas crashes: New data reveals each Australian state’s worst shopping centre carpark

Plenty of the pre-Christmas chatter is spent on the unenviable task of navigating the rush inside the shops.

But as it turns out, half the battle takes place before you’ve even set foot inside the all-out frenzy that is December gift shopping.

Finding a park can be an absolute nightmare, and new figures show it often gets the better of drivers.

The highest number of car-park collisions — 2,700 — take place in the final month of the year, with AAMI revealing the worst shopping centre car parks for accidents across Australia.

Behavioural Economist Phillip Slade said the frustration that comes with trying to find a free car bay is “a recipe for disaster”.

"All year-round drivers expect to find a car space typically within three to five minutes,” he said.

“During the festive period when car parks are busy we find that once we pass the five minute mark we start to feel annoyed and impatient, and the longer it takes, the more frustrated we become as we are not meeting our goal.

“The more expectation there is to achieve our goal, the more we’re likely to take risks and become emotional until we don’t see things clearly.

“This can quickly escalate to driving erratically, which as we know is how accidents happen."