This just in from scientific research: Friday the 13th is unlucky.
The risk of being admitted to the hospital because of a road accident on a Friday the 13th can go up as much as 52 percent, researchers report in the current edition of The British Medical Journal, which became available Friday."Staying at home is recommended," said the four-member research team from Mid Downs Health Authority, based in the town of Haywards Heath 35 miles south of London.
Triskaidekaphobics - those with a fear of the number 13 - will have five months to wait to apply the team's precautions. The next Friday the 13th is May 13, 1994.
The team led by the authority's public health registrar, Dr. Thomas Scanlon, suggested that increased anxiety on Friday the 13th may reduce concentration and increase the chance of accidents.
"Are people's . . . beliefs self-fulfilling - if you believe something strongly enough will it in fact happen?" they wrote.
"While we await the answers . . . we may just have to accept that Friday the 13th is indeed unlucky for some."
The team studied traffic flow figures for the southern section of the M25 motorway that rings London, hospital admission figures and numbers of shoppers in nine southeast England stores owned by J. Sainsbury PLC, Britain's biggest supermarket chain.
They compared figures for the five Friday the 13ths that fell in July 1990, September and December 1991, and March and November 1992, with those for the previous Fridays in each of those months.
"There were 1.4 percent fewer vehicles on the southern section of the M25 on Friday the 13th," the report said. But the number of shoppers was not significantly different, indicating people weren't simply staying at home on Friday the 13th.
"Even if each vehicle had only one occupant, this could mean at least 1.4 percent of the population are sufficiently superstitious to alter their behavior and refrain from driving on motorways on Friday the 13th," they said.
"(Hospital) admissions due to transport accidents were significantly increased on Friday 13th," the report said. "Our data suggest the risk of a transport accident on Friday the 13th may be increased by 52 percent."
Christian tradition considered Friday unlucky because Christ was crucified on Good Friday. The ancient Romans considered 13 unlucky, and the notion was reinforced by the last supper, when Christ dined with his 12 apostles.