You will of course be aware that the clocks were changed by an hour quite recently resulting in it getting darker sooner in the afternoon. You may be interested to read that Insure The Box that provides telematics car insurance has carried out some research into the impact this has on road traffic accidents.
Data relating to telematics car insurance provides some interesting information.
According to the above specialist car insurance provider there is a significant increase in the number of car accidents once the clocks have been changed in the Autumn.
The research was based upon looking carefully at data relating to accidents over a 3 year period involving in excess of 330,000 policies that were administered by Insure The Box. There is a 10% increase in the possibility of being involved in a road traffic accident in the 4 weeks after the clocks being changed at this time of year. Furthermore, even more concerning, is that between 5pm and 8pm in November after the clocks have been changed by an hour there is an increase of 30% in the possibility of being involved in a road traffic accident when compared to the numbers for October.
The above findings are interesting and perhaps it begs the question whether there is a case for the clocks not to be changed in this way if it means that there will be fewer accidents on the roads at this time of year than we currently see.
There are quite a lot of companies that offer telematics car insurance that is also known as “black box” car insurance. A box placed in your car measures things like when and where you are driving the car and how you drive it i.e. how you brake, how many miles you travel and the speed you travel at. Such cover may be cheaper than standard car insurance and may appeal, in particular to young motorists.
