§ 2.37 p.m.
§ THE EARL OF CORK AND ORRERYMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the second Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government how many traffic accidents per thousand vehicles occur in the Metropolitan Police area between 7.0 and 8.0 a.m., and between 8.0 and 9.0 a.m. in the months of December and January.]
§ THE MINISTER OF STATE, HOME OFFICE (LORD STONHAM)My Lords, in December, 1966, there were in the Metropolitan Police District 296 traffic accidents between 7 a.m. and 8 a.m. and 344 between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m. The corresponding figures in January, 1967, were 244 and 286. Figures of traffic flow are taken on a sample basis only; these suggest that in both months the volume of traffic during the later hour was about half as much again as during the earlier.
§ THE EARL OF CORK AND ORRERYMy Lords, while thanking the noble Lord for that reply, may I ask him whether he appreciates that if this information could be turned into terms of percentages of traffic flow it would give an indication of what danger, if any, is likely to arise as the result of moving the 8 a.m. to 9 a.m. heavy traffic from the first hour of daylight into the last hour before sunrise, as will occur with the introduction of British Standard Time?
§ LORD STONHAMYes, My Lords. The effect of the introduction of British Standard Time will be to move the higher risk period, influenced by the weather and the dark, forward into the period of increased traffic flow, influenced by the clock. The change is therefore likely to lead to more accidents in the morning. But this is only part of the story, because we cannot ignore the effect at the other end of the day when the period of higher traffic flow will be advanced from the dark into daylight. It appears that, taking morning and evening together, there will be more travel in daylight and less in the dark than at present under Greenwich Mean Time, 855 and that the reduction of accidents in the evening should be greater than the increase in the morning.
§ THE EARL OF CORK AND ORRERYMy Lords, I wonder whether the noble Lord would be kind enough to explain this. With the introduction of British Standard Time the evening rush hour traffic will run in the dark. But it runs in the dark now, and therefore rush hour traffic in the evening, so far as I can see, will not be affected in this way.
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, it will be affected because we do not get any less daylight under the new dispensation than under the present one. It merely means that we get more daylight in the evening, and it is the experience that there are fewer accidents at that time. That is why, during the passage of the Bill, I told the noble Earl that all the teaching organisations preferred the children going to school in the dark rather than going home in the dark.
§ BARONESS EMMET OF AMBERLEYMy Lords, would the noble Lord agree that on the whole people are more sober in the morning than they are in the dark?
§ LORD STONHAMYes, My Lords. The drinking hours are usually thought to be the evening and the later hours, but it is also the case that people going to work appear to be under greater stress and urgency than when they are going home.
§ LORD CHAMPIONMy Lords, is it not sometimes the case that people going to work have a greater degree of hangover?
§ LORD STONHAMMy Lords, perhaps the noble Lord knows this from his experience. I would not know.