Lobby your MP to save daylight and save lives

LARSOA is calling on the public to lobby their MP to vote for a bill which would mean lighter evenings all year and save around 450 deaths and serious injuries on the roads.

The Local Authority Road Safety Officers' Association has long been campaigning to move time forward by one hour throughout the year and, alongside RoSPA, is urging support for Tim Yeo's Private Members Bill which goes before Parliament this month. (Jan).

Simon Ettinghausen, chair of LARSOA, explains: Research shows lighter evenings would save lives on the roads - between 104 and 138 fewer deaths each year and 450 fewer combined deaths and serious injuries. If this bill was to become law it would save a considerable number of lives every year."

The bill goes before the House of Commons on Friday 26 th January and needs100 MPs to be present before it can progress to the committee stage and therefore have an opportunity to become law.

Simon adds: "There are other major benefits for the country if the bill were to succeed such as extended outdoor leisure time during the winter months which would promote health and fitness, the tourism industry would benefit from an extended season and there would be huge savings in energy costs reducing consumption and emissions which is necessary to reduce global warming.

"Extra evening daylight also protects the most vulnerable road users such as children returning home from school and the elderly. The government says it is committed to reducing deaths and serious injuries on the roads by 40% by 2010. Introducing double British summertime would go a long way towards reaching this target."

In effect the UK time would remain at GMT plus one hour and in the spring the clocks would go forward one hour taking us to GMT plus two hours.

Friday is generally the day most MPs return to their constituencies but LARSOA wants constituents to persuade them to stay in Parliament and vote. Opinion polls show the majority of the public is in favour and the government has accepted the road safety evidence.

ABOUT LARSOA

LARSOA is a national road safety organisation representing road safety officers (RSOs) employed in local government across the UK.

LARSOA represents 185 of the 200 eligible local authorities across the UK, assisting RSOs to fulfil their statutory role to reduce the number and severity of road casualties through education, training and publicity programmes.

LARSOA publishes an up-to-date round-up of road safety news from across the UK on its website www.larsoa.org.uk .

LARSOA also aims to influence national debate - government policy and action together with public opinion. The association works to achieve national recognition for road safety issues, commissions research into behaviour which contributes to road collisions and develops national road safety campaigns.

The association assists in identifying achievable national targets to reduce the number of collisions on the country's roads.