RoSPA - The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents
The lighter
evenings
are coming –
let’s stick with them
As the nation moves its clocks forward
to usher in the lighter summer evenings,
RoSPA is calling for a change that would
bring lighter evenings all year round.
T
ypically, around the period in the autumn when the
clocks go back, bringing darker evenings, the number
of pedestrians killed and seriously injured rises, with
the peaks between the hours of 3pm-5pm.
Safety charity RoSPA believes that, were the UK to have
lighter evenings year-round, multiple lives could be saved,
with many more people being protected from the serious,
life-changing injuries and heartbreak that road accidents
cause.
The safety charity proposes a trial of Single/Double
Summer Time (SDST), which would see the clocks move
forward an extra hour while retaining daylight savings – so
in the winter we would be on GMT+1 (like the current British
Summer Time) and in the summer we would be on GMT+2.
Kevin Clinton, RoSPA’s head of road safety, said:
“We’re calling for a trial period of SDST, to demonstrate
the benefits it would bring.
“When twilight and early-evening darkness occurs
during the afternoon school run and rush hour, it creates
dangerous conditions. Although it can be dark in the
morning too, there are many factors that make the
afternoon commute more dangerous – drivers, riders and
pedestrians are all more tired after a full day, so attention
and awareness may not be as high, and children tend to
take longer on the walk home from school while they talk to
friends, go to do different activities, or take detours.”
Lighter evenings year-round have also been linked to a
host of other business, health/wellbeing and environmental
benefits, such as increased opening times for businesses
and tourist destinations, extra light for after-school/after-
work activities, energy savings, and reduced darkness for
opportunist criminals.
RoSPA polling also shows there is an appetite for a trial,
with 75% of people who took part in an online survey at the
end of 2017 saying they would support a change to create
extra evening daylight.
To find out more about SDST and the benefits it would bring, see:
www.rospa.com/campaigns-fundraising/current/lighter-evenings/
HSE INTERNATIONAL
11