There is a fair amount of talk at the moment about how turning the clocks back this weekend is a bad thing that will directly lead to hundreds of deaths. An extra hour in bed has never looked so costly.
According to a number of sources pedestrians, cyclists and schoolchildren are under added risk after the clocks are turned back on the 25th of October. SmartWitness’ Hellawell said:
“Driver and pedestrian reaction times are considerably reduced at night-time and even at urban road speeds of 30mph this can mean the difference between life and death on the roads.”
When you consider this against the fact that from the 25 October twilight can be brought forward to around 4pm, a peak time for school children pedestrians, you might not be surprised to find that the number of casualties per mile rises steeply in the last three months of the year.
When I first saw these headlines I thought it was just another case of fear mongering trying to get in between me and my second hand Audi RS4, and more importantly between me and my extra hour in bed. However when you think about it logically, it does seem plausible that there would be a link between accidents and the clocks going back.
On a side note, whilst I’m pretty persuaded that scrapping turning the clocks back might be a good idea, I would love to know which tosser decided to do it on a weekend? I’d value that extra hour so much more if it meant I got an extra hour on a work day. Classic world.