The change in time affects not only human health and well-being, but also affects unemployment, which, according to various estimates, always increases in the first week after the introduction of daylight saving time.
The explanation for this is that the time difference has a negative effect on the quality of sleep, drivers are less rested, which reduces attention and vigilance on the road, which increases the likelihood of traffic accidents.
Another no less important factor is nature and wild animals, which live in their own biological rhythm and do not change the hands of the clock. It’s no secret that collisions between cars and wild animals on the road are a common, massive phenomenon. However, the intensification of collisions correlates with the transition from daylight hours to night hours.
Washington University researchers 1994−2021 conducted a study of car-wildlife collision data in more than 20 US states during the period, which revealed that the probability of these incidents in the first two hours after sunset is 14 times higher than 2 hours before it.
This is influenced by the characteristics of animal behavior and the fact that it is much more difficult for a driver to spot an animal on the road in the dark.
The researchers conclude that if daylight savings time were observed year-round, approximately 36,000 to 37,000 deaths would be avoided in the United States. of such collisions, and if winter time were applied throughout the year, such collisions would increase by 73-74 thousand annually.
So the difference between winter and summer time is more than 100 thousand. of potential car accidents, the loss value of which is calculated to be about 3.5 billion. dollars.
The statistics of human deaths and injuries are even more telling – if permanent winter time is chosen, the number of people killed in encounters with wild animals would increase by 100, and about 6 thousand. would be injured.
Fatal wildlife encounters are 3 times more likely to occur at night than during the day, and pedestrians are 7 times more likely to be injured or killed.
According to the researchers from the University of Washington who conducted the study, applying summer time in the US would help prevent about 300-400 pedestrian deaths, while choosing only winter time would result in the additional deaths of about 600 people, thus a difference of about 1,000 people’s lives in one year.
These figures should be a strong additional argument in the debate about the cancellation of seasonal time – living in its own biological rhythm, nature does not bend time, and together with drivers who lack rest, this greatly increases the risk of being injured or killed in a collision with a wild animal on the road.
