This Friday is the 13th, but before you panic and hide away to avoid bad luck, new research by online car insurance specialist, elephant.co.uk, suggests that Friday 13th isn’t as unlucky as you may think.
elephant.co.uk’s research suggests that Friday 3rd is the date to avoid going out, especially in your car. Although most accidents happened on this date last year, luckily there is only one Friday 3rd this year, in August. Interestingly, neither Friday 13th January, nor Friday 13th October appeared in the top 20 days during 2006 when most accidents were reported to the company.
Perhaps the superstitions surrounding Friday 13th aren’t so far off the mark after all though, as elephant.co.uk has discovered that Friday is the unluckiest day of the week for many motorists. Drivers are involved in more accidents on a Friday than on any other day of the week. One sixth of all accidents reported to elephant.co.uk since 2000 take place on a Friday.
It also seems that the type of accident reported on Friday 13th differs slightly from the Fridays before and after this date. Drivers are marginally more likely to report an accident where they cause damage only to a third party’s vehicle, a theft from their vehicle, or an injury on Friday 13th.
Ceri Assiratti, MD of elephant.co.uk, said: “This goes to show that Friday 13th maybe isn’t as unlucky a date as superstition would have us believe. It would make more sense for drivers to be superstitious about Friday 3rd!”
Issue date: 12-04-07 |
