In The Dark: Street Light Cuts Blamed For Accidents

We all love to see the long days arriving at this time of year. Getting out of bed for work in the mornings is made that little bit more bearable when the sun is shining. But did you know the summer nights also bring a hidden driving danger?

According to the AA, accident rates in urban areas in the UK are made far worse when street lights are switched off and new research has found that night-time road accidents in bad weather on urban roads with a 30mph limit had been cut by 15.6% over the past five years.

Councils have been reportedly turning lights off on some roads between midnight and 5am, with Essex the latest county council to dim its lamps. And where street lights were switched off, or were not present, the drop in accidents was just 2%.

Edmund King, President of the AA, said: “Worse accident rates on roads with street lights turned off or not present are an insidious threat that has crept in literally under the cover of darkness.

“Roads that are safe when lit can become unsafe with the lights switched off, but that is only shown when drivers, cyclists, bikers and pedestrians start to get hurt and killed. Why did people have to become street light victims to prove the point?

“With an extra casualty here and there, it is difficult to spot a creeping overall trend that might suggest something is dangerously wrong with a blackout.”
King goes on to say, “Without more switched-on thinking, a 70% street-light blackout in Essex and other councils will certainly cut costs and save CO2 but it will be paid for in lives and injuries.”
The motoring association said that overall, from 2007 to 2012, a 19.6% reduction in accidents along town and city roads where street lights were on, shrank to 8.8% where lighting was not present.

Essex County Council first switched off 70% of street lights on the 13th of January from midnight to 5am as part of a move to save £1.5m.

Last month the county council changed the timings in Epping Forest from 1am until 6am because of fears over the safety of late-night Tube users.
Lights are kept on at major junctions, areas of high crime risk, areas monitored by CCTV and sections of road where lights are installed to reduce car accidents. But for many this isn’t doing enough to remedy a problem that is potentially costing lives.

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