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The dangerous side of the "Fall Back" time change

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by JackDodge, Nov 3, 2007.

  1. JackDodge

    JackDodge Gold Member

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — After clocks are turned back this weekend, pedestrians walking during the evening rush hour are nearly three times more likely to be struck and killed by cars than before the time change, two scientists calculate.
    Ending daylight-saving time translates into about 37 more U.S. pedestrian deaths around 6 p.m. in November compared to October, the researchers report.
    Their study of risk to pedestrians is preliminary but confirms previous findings of higher deaths after clocks are set back in fall.
    It’s not the darkness itself but the adjustment to earlier nighttime that’s the killer, said Professors Paul Fischbeck and David Gerard, both of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.
    Fischbeck, who regularly walks with his 4-year-old twins around 6 p.m., is worried enough that he’ll be more cautious starting Monday.
    “A three-times increase in the risk is really dramatic, and because of that we’re carrying a flashlight,” he said.
    Fischbeck and Gerard conducted a preliminary study of seven years of federal traffic fatalities and calculated risk per mile walked for pedestrians.
    They found that per-mile risk jumps 186 percent from October to November but then drops 21 percent in December.
    They said the drop-off in deaths by December indicates the risk is caused by the trouble both drivers and pedestrians have adjusting when darkness suddenly comes an hour earlier.
    The reverse happens in the morning when clocks are set back and daylight comes earlier. Pedestrian risk plummets, but there are fewer walkers then, too.
    The 13 lives saved at 6 a.m. don’t offset the 37 lost at 6 p.m., the researchers found.
    The risk for pedestrian deaths at 6 p.m. is by far the highest in November than in any other month, the scientists said. The danger declines each month through May.
    The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety of Arlington, Va., in earlier studies found the switch from daylight-saving time to standard time increased pedestrian deaths. Going to a year-round daylightsaving time would save about 200 deaths a year, the institute calculated, said spokesman Russ Rader.
    “Benjamin Franklin conceived of daylight-saving time as a way of saving candles,” Rader said Friday. “Today we know it saves lives.”
    The risk at 6 p.m. in November, after daylight-saving time ends, is 11 times higher than the risk for the same hour in April, when daylight saving begins, according to the Carnegie Mellon researchers.
    Fischbeck and Gerard used federal traffic fatality data that they’ve incorporated into a searchable database for different risk factors. Their analysis was not peer-reviewed or being published in a scientific journal.
    But it does jibe with other peer-reviewed studies that looked at raw fatalities.
    A 2001 study by John M. Sullivan at the University of Michigan looked at national traffic statistics from 1987 to 1997 and found that there were 65 crashes killing pedestrians in the week before the clocks fell back and 227 in the week after.
    Fischbeck and Gerard found the increase in fatality risk after the end of daylight-saving time is only for pedestrians. No such jump was seen for drivers or passengers in cars.
    Once everyone “springs forward” to daylight-saving time in April, there is a 78 percent drop in risk at 6 p.m., they said.
    But overall for the evening rush hour, turning the clock back is a killer. In seven years there have been 250 more deaths in the fall and 139 fewer deaths in the spring.
    “This clearly shows that both drivers and pedestrians should think about this daylight-savings adjustment,” Gerard said. “There are lives at stake.”
    On the net
    The Traffic Stats database: http://www.traffic-stats.us
     
    #1 JackDodge, Nov 3, 2007
  2. judymcfarland

    judymcfarland Queen of Moral Indignation

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    If you regularly walk after dark, wear a simple reflective vest that tied on over his coat. They are not expensive & make you very visible to cars. When my son had a late afternoon paper route, I insisted he wear one. This would also apply to bike riders. Even if you have a bike light/reflector - the larger area of the vest makes for increased visibility (and safety).
     
    #2 judymcfarland, Nov 3, 2007
  3. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    Reflectors on pedals of bikes seem to flash and really catch the eye of following motorists much the same as reflectors in the wheel spokes.
     
    #3 patsparks, Nov 3, 2007
  4. Godiva

    Godiva AmeriKan Citizen

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    Daylight "Savings" time is stupid. I doesn't save anything. It just shifts it around. It's annoying and useless.

    Pick a time and stick to it.

    If I were Supreme Dictator of the Universe for Life I would abolish Daylight Savings Time. (I'd also put everyone on a 24 hour military clock, but that's another thing.)
     
    #4 Godiva, Nov 3, 2007
  5. patsparks

    patsparks An Aussie perspective

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    I love daylight saving, I'm still asleep when I drive to work in the morning then I have an extra hour in the evening. How good is that???
    :D
     
    #5 patsparks, Nov 3, 2007
  6. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Nov 3 2007, 12:39 PM) [snapback]534322[/snapback]</div>
    Agreed. It's only a way to make everyone get up earlier while pretending they aren't. If it makes sense to start the work day earlier, let's all get up earlier instead of playing games with the clock.

    The only addition I would make to your time ideas if I were Supreme Dictator of the Universe for Life is to put the whole world on one time zone, and make it noon when the sun is at the zenith at my house. The rest of you can just get used to it. :p

    Tom
     
    #6 qbee42, Nov 3, 2007
  7. Betelgeuse

    Betelgeuse Active Member

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Godiva @ Nov 3 2007, 11:39 AM) [snapback]534322[/snapback]</div>
    As long as we stay on DST year-round, I'm all for it; I really like that it's still light out for quite a while when I get back from work in the summer.
     
    #7 Betelgeuse, Nov 3, 2007
  8. qbee42

    qbee42 My other car is a boat

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Betelgeuse @ Nov 3 2007, 04:57 PM) [snapback]534386[/snapback]</div>
    We get it in spades where we live. Michigan is on Eastern Time, due to the eastern part of the state wanting to be on the same time as New York, but we live on the western side of the state, which essentially gives us Daylight Savings time without being on Daylight Savings. Add in Daylight Savings in the summer, plus our far north latitude, and it doesn't get dark until about 11 PM.

    Tom
     
    #8 qbee42, Nov 3, 2007
  9. hyo silver

    hyo silver Awaaaaay

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    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(qbee42 @ 2007 11 03 11:13) [snapback]534349[/snapback]</div>
    Back when people rarely travelled more than a day's horse ride from home their whole lives, the 'local high noon' concept worked just fine. Time zones were invented with the advent of the railway and the need for an accurate schedule. It was much easier than trying to agree on whose house to use for noon, and which country's lumberjacks had to work all night and sleep all day. :)
     
    #9 hyo silver, Nov 3, 2007
  10. hobbit

    hobbit Senior Member

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    It's bad enough without the chimp trying to fool with it in the name
    of some bogus "energy saving" red herring. What a travesty. I
    wasn't even sure when it was until reading this and checking around
    a little, and just went to send mail to a bunch of people I'm doing
    an event with tomorrow morning to make sure they're all on the same
    temporal page. Arrgh.
    .
    _H*
     
    #10 hobbit, Nov 3, 2007
  11. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    And I have to work an extra hour tonight thanks to DST....you'd think it would be bad enough working a weekend night shift, but no, now they stick me there for an extra hour...joy!
     
    #11 efusco, Nov 3, 2007
  12. samiam

    samiam Antipodean Prius Poster

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    I believe the danger described in the OP was due to the effects of fatigue, not visibility.

    We do have a a single time zone system in place, called UTC (or "Zulu time"). This replaced the
    older GMT system which was used since the late 18th century and codified worldwide in 1884.

    I could do without resetting my clock(s) too, but then again seasonal change is kinda nice.
     
    #12 samiam, Nov 4, 2007
  13. liverbomb88

    liverbomb88 Push the Button!

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    Just make sure you demand the night shift on 3/9/08, when dst kicks back in!

    <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(efusco @ Nov 3 2007, 04:32 PM) [snapback]534458[/snapback]</div>
     
    #13 liverbomb88, Nov 4, 2007
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