The Essentials
-
Police crash records show Friday the 13th sits in the middle of risk tables, making it safer than other Friday dates.
-
British drivers face the steepest collision spike on Friday the 19th (+6.7%), followed by the 11th and 20th.
-
Fear of Friday the 13th stems from folklore and Victorian fiction, but drivers stay more cautious on the date.
British drivers are officially safer on Friday the 13th than on almost any other Friday of the month, according to police accident records spanning two decades. A study conducted by Acorn Insurance examined every reported injury crash across England, Scotland, and Wales over 20 years, revealing that Friday the 13th sits firmly in the middle of risk rankings. Instead, Friday the 19th proved to be the most hazardous date on the calendar, showing a 6.7% surge in serious collisions compared to surrounding weeks.
The findings challenge centuries of cultural dread surrounding the calendar’s most famous omen. While motorists often brace for misfortune on the 13th, the date accounted for fewer incidents than the 11th (+4.9%), the 20th (+4.8%), the 15th (+3.5%), and the 7th (+2.6%). By comparing Friday dates with other Fridays in the same month and year, the data controls for seasonal light, holiday patterns, and weather swings, isolating human behaviour and routine road flow from folklore.
Where Friday the 13th superstitions actually start
Fear of Friday the 13th, known clinically as paraskevidekatriaphobia, is not an ancient unified legend, but a collision of two separate cultural anxieties that merged in the late nineteenth century.
The number 13 has carried ominous associations across Europe since antiquity. In Norse mythology, twelve gods gathered for a peaceful feast in Valhalla before the trickster Loki arrived uninvited as the thirteenth guest, directly orchestrating the death of the beloved god Baldur. Christian tradition mirrored this dining tally centuries later at the Last Supper, where Judas Iscariot sat as the thirteenth guest before betraying Jesus. In classical mathematics, twelve was viewed as the perfect base of completeness, reflecting twelve months, twelve signs of the zodiac, and twelve tribes, rendering thirteen an irregular, disruptive intruder.
Friday carried its own parallel burden in Western folklore. Long recognised in Christian theology as the day of the crucifixion, Friday became associated with executions, fasting, and solemnity. For centuries in maritime lore, sailors strongly refused to begin a voyage on a Friday, fearing misfortune at sea.
The combination of the two into a single cursed day only began appearing regularly in print during the Victorian era. It gained mainstream cultural traction after the 1907 publication of Thomas W. Lawson’s Wall Street novel Friday, the Thirteenth, which detailed a rogue broker who generated panic to crash the stock market. By the late twentieth century, pop culture solidified the date into modern horror mythos.
Examining the crash rankings
The road data indicates that modern drivers face actual risks tied to the rhythm of the working month rather than historical omens.
| Rank | Friday Date | Increase vs Same-Month Fridays | Total Recorded Crashes |
| 1 | Friday the 19th | +6.7% | 15,840 |
| 2 | Friday the 11th | +4.9% | 16,577 |
| 3 | Friday the 20th | +4.8% | 16,707 |
| 4 | Friday the 15th | +3.5% | 16,000 |
| 5 | Friday the 7th | +2.6% | 15,737 |
Adam Croughan, Personal Lines Operations Director at Acorn Insurance, said in a statement:
“Everyone knows the superstition, and it makes a good story, but the crash figures are more useful. A single Friday tells you very little on its own, so the fair way to judge any date is to put it next to the other Fridays of the same month. What pushes Friday crash numbers up and down is the weather, the holidays, and the events going on that day, so those are the things worth planning around. Check the forecast before you set off, give yourself extra time around a holiday or a big event, and drive every Friday with the same care, whatever date it is.”
The dates seeing the biggest spikes cluster around mid-month travel, early paydays, and school term calendars. In contrast, drivers on Friday the 13th often report heightened caution or simply maintain ordinary commuting patterns, deflating the myth of supernatural bad luck through plain road diligence.
Via Acorn Insurance. Photo by Caleb Minear on Unsplash.
In Pure Spirit
Do you fear Friday the 13th?
Join the conversation