Extra hour of daylight 'would improve road safety'

Date: 2/12/2010

An industry body has called upon MPs to back a campaign for an extra hour of daylight ahead of the second reading of the Lighter Later bill due to take place tomorrow (December 3rd).

The Institute of Advanced Motorists made the plea after revealing 63 per cent of respondents in a poll support either a trial or permanent change to a system of GMT+1 for winter and GMT+2 during summer.

Neil Greig, Director of Policy and Research at the organisation, said: "The improvement this change might have on road safety is of primary importance. Anything that continues the downward trend in road deaths has got to be a good thing."

He explained an extra hour of afternoon daylight would make children more visible to road users, as they are more likely to be out on the streets after school.

Recent work by TRL on the merits of adopting Single Double Summer Time estimated that the number of fatal casualties could be reduced by 82 per year and the number of serious casualties by 212 per year (based on casualty figures from 2003 to 2007) and that such a change could have a ten year Net Present Value of £1.4 billion in terms of road safety benefits alone.
 

Posted by Sarah Bailey