David Williams: 'Changing the clocks means death on the road'

Tomorrow, British Summer Time ends, and from that moment we have to steel ourselves, once again, for very many unnecessary deaths and injures in road crashes, simply due to a practice that was introduced during the First World War to improve agricultural output and to conserve fuel for the war effort against the Kaiser. That was a long time ago. It is high time we looked at again at this archaic practice.

By changing the clocks in the way that we do, we ensure that the most dangerous time of the day on the road, the late afternoon and early evening, takes place in darkness. The dramatic increase in road crashes will start on the morning of 29 October and the trend will continue through November and December.

Independent research projects, the most recent of which was undertaken by the Transport Research Laboratory in 1998, clearly show that if we were to adopt Central European Time (CET) that is to retain 'Summer Time' throughout the winter months, around 100 deaths and many injuries could be prevented. Put simply, it would mean safer roads with darkness falling one hour later in the afternoon and disappearing one hour later in the morning.

At this point in the argument the usual question regarding substituting morning crashes for evening crashes is suually raised. The answer to that is that the research does indeed show that there would be a slight increase in early morning crashes if CET were introduced. However, there would be a much larger saving in early evening casualties, making the net effect safer roads overall.

The Guild of Experienced Motorists has been calling for the adoption of CET for many years, and is joined by a formidable coalition comprising virtually all national safety groups, including the Royal Society for Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS), the Institute of Road Safety Officers, the Association of Industrial Road Safety Officers and the Association of Chief Police Officers.

Obviously, GEM's interest in the matter relates solely to accident saving, however many other groups support the measure for a variety of very good reasons. Industry and commerce would welcome a harmonisation of trading times with other European Union members, while leisure organisations see advantages in allowing outdoor activities to continue into the afternoon in winter time.

Groups representing retired and elderly people also support the change to CET, as it has been proven that many older citizens refrain from afternoon activities in the winter due to fear of travelling home in darkness. Even employers' organisations see benefit in adopting CET to allow their staff to travel home, after work, in the safety of daylight.

GEM is supporting RoSPA in a call to the Government to introduce an experimental period of CET. Only if we do this will the 'doubters' to the change be convinced that the benefits far outweigh any disadvantages.

During my thirty years in the road safety profession, I have seen no other initiative that - at virtually nil cost - could save death and injury on the scale that the adoption of CET could bring.

The writer is the chief executive of the Guild of Experienced Motorists