Car dealers with body shops have been urged to increase their capacity to cash-in on a winter rise in weather-related incidents on the roads.

Winter prangs result in £150 million of additional repair work, with approximately 70,000 more accidents occurring between January and March according to the latest statistics recovered from the details of 28,000 incidents examined by Accident Exchange.

Frosty roads, fewer daylight hours and wet weather result in the 15% rise in accidents when compared to the equivalent June to August summertime figure.

Scott Hamilton-Cooper, operations director at Accident Exchange, said: “Dealers and body shops can capitalise on the £150 million rise in repairs in winter by anticipating the need to increase capacity, where possible. Even predicting a rise towards the end of the working week can potentially improve efficiency.

“With one of the coldest January’s on record already under our belts, motorists will have been even more prone to ice, slippery roads and fog which could easily see this number rise even further.”

Accident Exchange’s figures show that during evening rush hours of 5pm to 6pm, that figure jumps by almost a third (30%) as commuters hit the road but struggle with the road conditions.

Higher fatigue towards the end of the working week is likely to have contributed to making Friday the worst day for accidents, with 19% more incidents than an average week day.

More specifically, Accident Exchange also found that the heaviest spike in accidents fell on the last Friday before the May Day bank holiday, with 75% more accidents than the average.

In 2017, that day falls on the 28th of April, which could see an increase in recorded accidents of approximately 10,500 versus 6,000 on a typical day.