Human error in parliamentary car crashes

A $27,000 taxpayer funded review will be conducted to determine if drivers or bollard operators were at fault after five cars were damaged in collisions with bollards at Parliament House in Canberra.

The steel bollards - which retreat into the ground to allow cars to drive up to the building - were switched from automatic operation to human control while security works were carried out.

Since last November five cars have been damaged in collisions with the bollards and the Parliamentary Services Department is spending $27,000 on an external review to find out what went wrong.

"Our suspicion is human error is likely to blame for most if not all of them," the department's first assistant secretary Paul Cooper told a Senate hearing on Monday.

Three Comcars, an AFP vehicle and a maintenance vehicle were damaged in the collisions.

Mr Cooper said the review will look at "whether the driver drove when the bollard was coming up or whether the bollard was raised" while the car was driving over it.

The review was commissioned in November but will not be completed until March or April.

No injuries were reported during the collisions, and no MPs were in the cars at the time.

The bollards have since been returned to automatic operation.