Starry, starry nights?

The Mail has highlighted the 'fears' of an increase in road accidents when some motorway lights are turned off between the hours of midnight and five in the morning. Turning off some lights is meant to both save the environment and quite a bit of money.

According to the Campaign for Dark Skies the idea has already been trialled in some counties, with no increase in the number of road accidents and, where urban lights have been turned off it has been deemed a success ...

... "A year on year comparison for April 2006 to May 2007 [when street-lights were left on all night] and April 2007 to May 2008 [when street-lights were turned off at midnight] has shown that night-time crime has almost halved in Saffron Walden and reduced by over a third in Dunmow."

Mrs Rigby's experience is that, when it's raining and there are bright metal halide lights, it's almost impossible to see white road markings and also, at the end of a run of bright white lights, her eyes take a moment or two to adjust to the sudden darkness.

She has noticed that, in brightly lit urban areas, car headlights are almost invisible, and she thinks it's easier to see cars at night when there's no street lighting - simply because it's possible to see their headlight beams approaching a junction or from around a bend etc. etc.. It's because of this some of the unlit winding rural roads near Rigby Town seem safer to use during the darker winter months.

Mr Eugenides, however, spots an interesting conundrum

So we live in a society where head teachers make kids wear goggles to play conkers and policemen are forbidden from rescuing drowning people on health and safety grounds... and then they make you drive at 70mph in pitch darkness to save the polar bears?

Hmm, it almost makes Mrs R wonder who'll be first to trip over on a newly darkened motorway and then blame the lack of street lighting - and after that maybe all cars will have to be preceded by a pedestrian waving a red flag. Or did they do that once before?

....

Whose fault?

We live in an increasingly litigious country, where if something goes wrong it's somebody else's fault.

People are able to claim thousands and thousands of pounds in compensation for hurt feelings if they are called something they don't like, and can be given tens of thousands of pounds in compensation if they get achy muscles because their keyboard isn't the right design for their body.

If you're involved in a car accident insurers will do their best to work out which driver is culpable and the police might try to work out if anybody broke any rules which could result in prosecution and expensive penalties.

So, Mrs R wonders, who will be blamed for this

police reported a major pile-up on a frozen motorway.

Greater Manchester Police said seven people had been injured in the crash, which involved up to 10 cars on the A627(M) in Oldham.

In this report it says

It is thought the vehicles may have skidded on a patch of black ice.

Black ice develops when water freezes. It's called black ice because it isn't easy to see - it looks more like moisture than ice and it's harder to work out whether it's ice or water in bright artificial light.

The first article also says

The day began with Met Office warnings of treacherous roads and police reporting black ice in several areas.

Mrs R believes that black ice should be rare on roads, especially major roads, because they should be properly maintained and kept in a safe condition by those we pay to do it - the Highways Agency and their agents or subcontractors.

Motorists pay their taxes and can, reasonably, expect the money to be spent where the tax says it will be spent otherwise, maybe, that particular tax is misrepresented.

The Highways Agency and councils have cut their use of salt for gritting roads by half - up from the 25% agreed last week - to protect supplies.

They have had to "cut their use of salt" because central government has told them to - to preserve supplies. Supplies can't be topped up because British salt mines are working at full capacity and salt ordered from abroad isn't due to arrive until around 21st January.

They have had to preserve supplies because advice was given that only 6 days salt would be needed this winter - and some of the people responsible for keeping our roads safe did as they were told. It didn't matter where in the country they were and what their normal winter conditions were - they did as they were told.

Those that didn't do as they were told, and instead used their common sense, had their road salt taken away from them and suppliers were ordered not to give them any more. Central government set out those rules.

So, near Oldham, due to a major accident the A627M is closed and

Drivers are being advised to find alternative routes as the roads could be closed for some time.

These drivers are being told to use roads that probably won't have been gritted and salted. They won't have been gritted or salted because central government has told salters and gritters to concentrate their efforts on major routes - those with an M or an A at the beginning of their number.

If there is a major accident on one of the 'alternative routes' that is later found to be because it was icy - who will be culpable?

Update :_
Via MummyLongLegs
This

An 11-year-old girl has died after she apparently slipped on ice outside her primary school in Lancashire.

and

An investigation is under way into the circumstances of her death, and how she came to fall to the ground.

A spokeswoman for Lancashire Police said Naeemah was believed to have slipped on ice, but that officers were still investigating.

Pictures accompanying the story show the pavements and the road covered with ice. Who should ensured they were safe?