If you thought putting the clocks back was just a harmless annual ritual carried out to appease bad tempered Scottish farmers, think again!
As you will recall, the clocks went back just over a week ago. Perhaps you’ve noticed a change? Maybe you’ve found that everything on telly’s already finished when you sit down to watch it? Maybe you’ve noticed clocks around your house starting to disagree with one another? Or maybe… (cue dramatic and scary sequence of three ascending organ chords) you’ve noticed that a maelstrom of metallic-impact mayhem has suddenly been unleashed on Britain’s highways and byways.
If you’ve noticed that third thing, you could be onto something. Telematicists Insure My Box have performed a quite prodigious and unprecedented feat of number crunching to reveal that there are 10% more RTAs than usual in the four weeks after the clocks go back. And between the hours of 5pm and 8pm, the equivalent increase is as high as 30%.
Insure My Box person Charlotte Hulklet says these latest figures prove unequivocally that “there is no doubt accident risk increases as a direct result of the clocks going back one hour in autumn.” Why might this be, you are probably wondering. It could be that we forget each summer how to drive in the dark and then get totally blindsided by the sudden reappearance of darkness in late October.
For many young drivers who have learned to drive over the summer, Charlotte points out, this could be the first time they’ve ever encountered darkness. On which basis, who could blame them for driving into things they can barely see – especially if they haven’t switched the headlights on or something.
Stopping this clock-changing nonsense each year could save many fledgling drivers from pranging up their motors, Charlotte argues.
Perhaps she’d like to lead the delegation that presents that case to a horde of angry crofters lined up, Braveheart style, in an anachronistic combination of tartan, woad and skinny plaits.