Street light switch-offs leading to more accidents

Accident rates on Britain’s roads are continuing to rise in some areas, thanks to energy-saving streetlight blackouts.

The AA claim that the schemes, which are operated by councils and see streetlights switched off for a time in the early hours of the morning, are responsible for the decreases in road traffic accident rates failing to match those seen on well-lit roads.

Recently released Government figures show that an improvement in general road safety over the past five years has been responsible for a decrease of over 18% in car accident injuries on lit roads at night and a 24% reduction in incidents in the adverse weather conditions. In areas operating a blackout scheme however, those figures drop to an overall reduction of 12% overall and 16.7% in wet, icy and snowy weather.

AA president Edmund King said: "New official road safety statistics show that accident rates on blacked-out town and city roads are not getting better. In fact, on 40mph roads, they are getting much worse - particularly in bad weather.

"This is the type of road where most of the fatalities, for which coroners blamed street light switch-offs as a contributory factor, happened."

He added: "Crash investigators in inquests have consistently stated that drivers who keep to the speed limit on those roads have little or no chance of missing pedestrians that suddenly appear out of the dark."

This year's National Highways and Transport Network public satisfaction survey revealed that the five worst scoring councils all operate a blackout during the early hours of the morning.

Blackpool meanwhile came out on top thanks to new energy-saving LED street lights installed as part of a Community Lighting Partnership.

Share this article