Study attributes summer time to 28 fatal car accidents

EU countries have been debating the abolition of daylight saving time for years. And now several US states are also considering saying goodbye to the time change. Experts around the world recommend winter time as a better alternative for our health and well-being. A study published on January 30 in the journal Current Biology shows another disadvantage of summer time: it increases the risk of fatal car accidents for about a week a year.

Winter time as a better alternative for our health and well-being

The data shows that the risk of fatal traffic accidents increased by around six percent each week after the spring time change. In other words, more than 28 fatal accidents could be prevented in the US annually if the transition to daylight saving time were abolished. The effect is particularly pronounced in the morning and in places further west within a time zone.

“The negative effects of summer time on the fatal road accident risk are real and can be prevented,” says lead author Celine Vetter, a sleep researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Although the observed effects can be assessed as moderate and not of long duration, we should not forget that the transition to summer time affects billions of people every year. So small changes in risk can have a significant impact on public health. ”

The transition to daylight saving time has been associated with a number of problems since its inception, including an increased risk of heart attack, accidents at work, and suicides. There was also evidence of an increased risk of car accidents. But, Vetter explained, these findings were not clear. In the new study, she and her colleagues, including first author Josef Fritz, set out to find out more about the problem.

the transition to summer time is associated with a number of problems

They used a large U.S. registry, the Federal Fatality Analysis Reporting System, which recorded 732,835 fatal car accidents in all U.S. states from 1996 to 2017. Their analysis showed a six percent increase in risk after the clocks were changed over in the spring. In absolute terms, this increased risk resulted in an additional 5.7 fatal accidents per day Monday through Friday after the daylight saving time changeover in the United States. That is more than 28 deaths during the working week. Over the past 22 years, they report, that is more than 626 of 8,958 fatal accidents that could have been prevented.

“The impact of daylight saving time change on public health in relation to the fatal road accident risk can be seen from our data,” said Vetter. “Since our data contained only the most serious accidents, namely those in which one death was registered, this estimate is probably an underestimation of the real risk.”

(youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSrrbsGk6kw)

According to the researchers, the results offer another reason for abolishing the switch to summer time. They now hope to better understand and characterize the effects of daylight saving time on individuals and the physiological and health effects associated with the “mini-jetlag” causes of daylight saving time. With such an understanding, they say, they will be able to identify the people who are most at risk and affected by the clock change.

Further information: Current Biology, “A Chronobiological Evaluation of the Acute Effects of Daylight Saving Time on Traffic Accident Risk”, Josef Fritz, Trang VoPham, Kenneth P.Wright Jr., Céline Vetter

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