Sunday’s road to ruin

Worst day of the week for fatal crashes in countryside as townies take a spin

CAR crashes are 70 per cent more likely to be fatal on rural roads than on city streets – with sunday afternoon the deadliest time of the week, a study has found.

it suggests that sunday drivers taking their cars out for a spin from the city into the countryside may be a particular hazard.

Researchers found that roads in cities have many more serious car accidents that cause severe injury.

But collisions in rural areas are much more likely to result in death. The number of fatal accidents was around 70 per cent higher in rural areas than cities.

however, the number of serious accidents was 48 per cent higher in cities. A team from University College London analysed crash figures in England and Wales between 2008 and 2018.

Over the decade, urban roads saw 6,483 fatal accidents, 129,512 serious accidents and 849,349 minor ones. But on rural roads there were 11,069 fatal accidents, 87,650 serious accidents and 411,900 minor ones.

The researchers suggested that motorists driving into the countryside from towns and cities might have a role to play. They said: ‘Fatal accidents reach their frequency peak on sundays in rural areas when perhaps more people are travelling away from their usual place of residence in urban areas.’

They added that drivers in the countryside tend to be older ‘with higher fragility and higher chances of dying’. They may also drive at greater speeds and are less likely to wear seatbelts.

The report comes after Prince Philip’s Land Rover was in collision with another car in 2019 near sandringham, Norfolk, while the royal – then 97 – was not wearing a seatbelt. The researchers said it is also more difficult to get swift medical attention after a crash in the countryside.

The report found that driving in the daytime was almost always more dangerous than at night, especially in cities during morning and evening rush-hours.

The exception was on Friday and saturday evenings, which may be due to drink- driving at those times.

The researchers said a recent study found one in five fatal accidents in England and Wales in 2017 was related to drink-driving.

The UCL team, writing in a Royal society journal, said: ‘serious and minor accidents happen with higher frequency in urban than in rural areas and they follow daily patterns that reflect the working schedule of residents.

‘Fatal accidents happen more often in rural areas.’

They linked this to ‘ the demographics of rural drivers, their typical behaviours or the higher difficulty to access medical care after a crash’.

Roads were classified as urban or rural by analysing the land use within a 50-metre grid where the accident occurred.

An area with a greater proportion of farmland was considered rural, while a road featuring many houses and blocks of flats or industry was seen as urban.