A fascinating study has found that putting the clocks back in winter causes a huge increase in the number of road accidents. The University of Cambridge’s Centre for Technology Management has discovered that in Great Britain 450 serious injuries and a massive 104 deaths could be prevented by being one hour ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT+1). The injuries caused by the change of clock time results in £200 million per year in NHS costs, and £7 billion since 1971. This staggering figure is of course paid for by the British tax payer.
The study argues that if the UK were to join the Central European Time (CET) with countries including Austria, Italy, Germany, France, Sweden and the Netherlands – lives could be saved. The CET is an hour ahead of Great Britain throughout the year, putting countries an hour ahead in winter and two hours ahead in summer. If we were to join the CET we would notice it being light until 11pm in the summer and 5pm even in deep winter. But since we follow the clock rather than the sun, the early evening rush hour produces more accidents that the morning rush hour, since drivers suffer from reduced daylight when their concentration levels are lower.
The Times Online commented that November 2007 ‘was by far the worst month for injuries in road crashes. Among car users, the casualty rate rose from 37 per 100 million vehicle kilometres in October to 44 in November.‘ Pedestrians, particularly children, also fall victim to the change in time as they spend more time in the afternoon on the roads rather than in the morning when they walk directly to school.
The debate of joining the CET has heated up with Robert Gifford, director of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety saying: “There is no doubt that keeping the UK on the same time zone as the rest of Europe would save lives among all classes of road user. The Government should now agree to a trial to confirm public support for such a measure.” Alan Kennedy, vice-chairman of the Local Authority Road Safety Officers’ Association, also supports later daylight hours arguing, “We have the opportunity to protect some of the most vulnerable road users.”
In October 2008, Jersey voted in a referendum against adopting CET. Business leaders had argued that moving the clocks forward one hour would put the island out of step with London. But the BBC argues that the stock market also has a habit of falling when the clocks go forward; The FTSE 100 has fallen 15 years out of the last 25, with an average loss of 0.77%.
The study ultimately poses the question that if it would be beneficial to producing not only a better quality of life since we would have more light to perform daily activities and be outdoor, but also reduce the number of road injuries and deaths, why do we not join the CET?
