Studies Link Shorter Daylight Hours to Higher Rates of Car Accidents and Pedestrian Injuries
Daylight Saving Time (DST) ended on the start Sun of November at two in the morn. People fix their clocks back an extra hour to get darker earlier in the evening until DST starts over again inward the leap. With before dusks starting during top commuting hours, novel rubber topics for drivers as well as pedestrians require to live addressed.
How does the ending of DST bear upon people’s risks of beingness inwards a car accident? And how does early darkness touch on pedestrian safety? According to an article from The Dover Post, disruptions in slumber cycles tin atomic number 82 to drowsy driving, together with shorter days tin can hateful that more people will be commuting in the dark. “Although nosotros reach an hour of slumber, our sleep patterns are disrupted. This tin result in dangerous drowsy driving episodes,” said Ken Grant, the manager of world together with government affairs for AAA Mid-Atlantic. “Be aware that the shorter days this fourth dimension of yr tin create more than drowsiness behind the bicycle,” Grant clarified.
In add-on, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched the metropolis’s fourth annual Dusk to Darkness condom crusade equally function of its Vision Zero initiatory, which aims to increment pedestrian safety on New York City roads. The effort included a “twenty-four hour period of awareness” to remind New Yorkers of the dangers faced by pedestrians together with cyclists during the autumn as well as wintertime.
Getting the Facts About Car Accidents
How ofttimes make machine accidents occur because of drowsy driving? Do more auto accidents fall out at a detail time of 24-hour interval? The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in addition to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control too Prevention (CDC) provide or so of the following facts in addition to figures:
- Highest percent of car accidents come about betwixt the hours of three p.m. and half-dozen p.m.;
- Pedestrian fatalities are highest during rush hr, especially later the finish of daylight saving fourth dimension;
- As many as i inward 25 American adult drivers admits to falling asleep behind the cycle inward the final thirty days; and
- Drowsy driving is responsible for as many as 72,000 accidents too 44,000 injuries every twelvemonth.
AAA mid-atlantic provides the next safe tips for motorists together with pedestrians next the finish of Daylight Saving Time:
For drivers:
- Don’t speed;
- Turn on your headlights during the early morn together with eve hours and so you are fully visible. Keep headlights on at dusk together with dawn;
- Keep your vehicle’sec headlights in addition to windows make clean on the within together with exterior;
- Do not function high beams when at that place are other cars or pedestrians about. It takes more than a few seconds for a driver’second eyes to become adjusted to the darkness afterwards they accept been blinded past high beams;
- Yield to pedestrians inwards crosswalks as well as make not decease vehicles stopped at crosswalks.
For pedestrians together with bicyclists:
- Only cross at intersections.
- Look left, correct in addition to then left again at an intersection too alone cross when the coast is clear;
- Do non jaywalk;
- Do non cross the road inward the center of the street or betwixt parked cars;
- Avoid walking inwards traffic if there are no sidewalks or crosswalks available. If you lot take to walk in an surface area where at that place is no sidewalk, make certain to walk inwards the direction facing traffic;
- Evaluate the distance in addition to speed of oncoming traffic earlier y'all step into the street;
- Wear brilliant colors or reflective article of clothing when walking or biking at night. Carry a flashlight too to be visible;
- Don’t listen to music when walking or cycling. If yous take to heed to music, make certain the volume is low then that you lot can hear things about you;
- Put lights and reflectors on your bicycle to brand y'all more visible when riding at nighttime.
Stay condom this fall as well as wintertime. If yous or somebody y'all love got hurt in a collision amongst a motor vehicle, y'all should larn more almost your options by speaking with a automobile accident attorney.
