Company News from yesinsurance

25 March 2008 Next Weekend's Clock Change Should Be Permanent, According To Research

Latest research on road accidents suggests that this coming weekend should be the last time Britain changes its clocks, according to one of the UK’s leading motor insurers.

The UK moves its clocks forward one hour to British Summer Time (BST) at 1am this coming Sunday, 30 March.

The research, undertaken by yesinsurance.co.uk (part of the GMAC Financial Services group of companies), indicates that UK road deaths could be cut by 3% – around 100 people a year – if the country stayed on British Summer Time (BST) all year round.

The yesinsurance figures show that the move would cause a slight increase in road deaths in the darker mornings, but would result in a bigger decrease in deaths in the late afternoon and evenings.
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“Staying on BST all year round would result in a reduction of about 100 in the annual total of deaths on UK roads, which is currently just over 3,000 a year,” said Paul Purdy of yesinsurance.co.uk

“Serious injuries, which stand at almost 30,000 a year, would also see a fall of around 800 a year,” he said.

The insurer says that accident statistics show that darkness increases the level of risk on the roads and that its own experience of insurance claims on car accidents mirrors this pattern.

It says that moving clocks forward, rather than back, in winter would contribute to an even greater reduction in road accidents later in the day, whilst the corresponding increase in accidents at earlier times would be smaller.

An idea to put clocks forward in winter was dropped following an experiment undertaken between 1968 and 1971, based on anecdotal evidence relating to early morning accidents involving schoolchildren.

However, the insurer says that a properly monitored study would reveal a bigger decrease in accidents later in the day, many of which would have been at the time children were coming home from school.