TUESDAY is the most dangerous day to be out on the roads, but accidents are most likely to occur on a Friday, according to the latest Fleet Insurance Report from VELO. The accident management specialist analysed over 30,000 fleet insurance claims during 1997, and found the average cost of accidents was disproportionately high on Tuesday at £811.43.

The company believes this may be due to fleet drivers being office-based on Monday and taking to the roads on Tuesday. But Monday has the lowest average cost per incident at £581.97, which VELO suggests may also be due to heavy congestion slowing traffic down, thereby reducing the impact of accidents which do occur.

This would also explain why Sunday has the second highest average cost per incident at £750.58 with the 'day of rest's' clear roads leading to higher speeds and more severe accidents. Sunday also suffers a high proportion of accidents involving moving vehicles, accounting for 17.6% of the week's incidents, second only to Friday's lion's share of 24.1% due perhaps to drivers having the weekend on their mind. Wednesday would seem to be the safest day to venture forth in a car, accounting for just 7.6% of the week's accidents.