With the end of British Summer Time (BST) bringing in darker
evenings, Brake, the road safety charity, is calling on the
Government to commit to moving to Single/Double Summer Time
(SDST) to help save lives on the road.
SDST would move our clocks forward an additional hour all year
round and so would create lighter evenings, allowing many road
users, especially cyclists and pedestrians, to take advantage of
the benefits of natural light to remain safe and be seen during
evening rush hours. Lighter winter evenings could also have
life-saving implications - the number of pedestrians killed
jumped from 46 in October 2017 to 63 in November 2017, the first
month after the clocks went back, a consistent trend over recent
years [1].
Studies have found that moving the clocks to an hour ahead of
Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+1) in winter, and two hours ahead
(GMT+2) in summer, would prevent 80 deaths and hundreds of
serious injuries on UK roads every year [2,3]. There are also
significant environmental benefits to be gained from implementing
SDST as it has been estimated that the switch would reduce CO2
pollution by up to 447,000 tonnes each year [4].
Commenting Joshua Harris, director of campaigns for Brake, said:
“With summer time ending, and the nights closing in, the danger
facing cyclists and pedestrians on our roads increases. At a time
when the UK is struggling to move the dial on road safety, a move
to SDST offers a glaringly simple and effective way to reduce
deaths and injuries on our roads and so must be considered
seriously by the Government. Lighter evenings can bring so many
benefits, not only to road safety but through reducing carbon
emissions and encouraging more people to be active and use the
extra daylight for outdoor leisure activity – it really is a
win-win for the Government.”
ENDS
Notes to editors:
[1] Reported Road Casualties
Great Britain, Annual Report 2017 - RAS 30020
[2] Report 368, a new
assessment of the likely effects on road accidents of adopting a
GMT+1/GMT+2 regime, Transport Research Laboratory,
1998
[3] Department for Transport,
A Safer Way: Consultation on Making Britain’s Roads the Safest in
the World, 2009
[4] Yu-Foong Chong, Elizabeth Garnsey, Simon Hill and Frederic
Desobry “Daylight Saving, Electricity Demand and Emissions;
Exploratory Studies from Great Britain”, October 2009
