Would abandoning Greenwich Mean Time mean fewer pedestrian/cyclist accidents on the road?

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents believes so.

With the clocks changing on Sunday (October 25), RoSPA is urging pedestrians, as well as cyclists, to ensure they can be seen by motorists and for motorists to keep an even greater look out for them.

The safety charity is also continuing to press for the introduction of a system that would give an extra hour of daylight in the evening all year round.

RoSPA has been calling for many years for the UK to move to a system called “Single Double Summer Time” (SDST), which would put the clocks one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in winter and two hours ahead of GMT in summer. This year, the campaign has received a boost from three publications.

In a report published today, the Public Accounts Committee states that there is “substantial evidence” that fewer people would be killed and seriously injured on the roads if the clocks were put forward by one hour throughout the year. The report quotes figures also cited in two other publications.

In April, the Department for Transport launched a consultation on its new road safety strategy. The consultation document acknowledged research which found that a move to SDST could reduce road deaths by around 80 per year and serious injuries by around 212 per year. It also stated that while moving to SDST would involve a one-off cost of £5million to publicise the change, it would then result in benefits of £138.36million a year due to the reduction in road casualties, and would also lead to energy savings, business benefits and more opportunities for sport and leisure. It said the cost-benefit case in road safety terms was “clear”, but that the issue went beyond the scope of the strategy consultation due to the other implications requiring consideration.

And in May, the National Audit Office published a report called “Improving Road Safety for Pedestrians and Cyclists in Great Britain”. In a section looking at seasonal road casualty patterns from 2000-2007, the report stated that there were 10 per cent more collisions killing or injuring a pedestrian in the four weeks following the clocks going back than in the four weeks before the clocks changed.

A total of 572 pedestrians were killed on Britain’s roads last year. Pedestrian deaths rose from 55 in October to 62 in November – the month in which the most pedestrian fatalities were recorded. In March 2008, 61 pedestrians were killed, but in April – after the clocks had moved forward an hour – the figure dropped to 34.