Looking at the BGA accident database, I note that many landing
accidents in the UK occur because of attempts to continue flight below
what I would regard judicious altitudes - setting up patterns for
landing at 200 to 500 feet AGL away from the home field. I wonder if
this is partly due to the normally lower altitudes that glider pilots
attain in cold, wet climates and the good availability of landing
fields.

I also note a very large number of UK accidents associated with winch
launches, including actual and simulated winch failure.

Interestingly, I can only find one BGA report of an incident involving
gear warning when a glider failed to lower its gear after a contest
finish and made a hard landing due to the pilot losing some control on
lowering the gear a few feet above the ground.

The FAA database also shows many accidents from poor off-field landing
decisions, but a quick review suggests they are a bit rarer than in the
UK. I also can't find any associated with gear-warning.

So, I see no evidence to suggest that gear warning systems lead to
accidents, but failure to plan landings from low altitude (including
contest finishes) certainly does. But even these seem to pale into
insignificance compared to the high rate of failed winch launches.

Any comments from our snow-bound UK colleagues?

Mike