Road accidents regularly rise as darkness falls

9/29/2010 6:55 AM EST

As summertime ends, leaves are falling, rain is falling more frequently and darkness is falling increasingly earlier in the evening. Is it more than a coincidence that the number of road accidents occurring at this time of year increases?

Department of Transport Road Safety statistics for 2005-09 show October and November having the highest number of personal injury road accidents in four out of the five years. In 2009, the number reported in November was up to 40% higher than other months.

Michelle Dorian, Director of Content for DriveWize (www.drive-wize.com), an online driver training course and risk assessment said "This time of year brings the worst combination of driving conditions as the weather changes and British Summer Time ends, yet motorists continue to drive as though they were still in the summer months.”

The DriveWize course raises awareness of vehicle safety and safe driving techniques, which includes amongst other good advice the following for driving in bad weather conditions:

Check your tyres – Check they are correctly inflated and meet the legal tread depth of 1.6 mm across the central three-quarters of the tread. Many manufacturers recommend changing at 2mm or 3mm as anything less could be dangerous in wet or icy conditions.

See and be seen - Keep your windscreen, windows and all lights clean.

Allow for greater stopping distances – On wet roads, stopping distances will be at least double those required for stopping on dry roads. At 30mph that would be up to 46 metres, the equivalent of 12 car lengths.