Drivers should use an extra bit of caution today as the drowsiness associated with daylight savings time has been associated with a higher rate of car crashes.
In 1999, researchers at Johns Hopkins University and Stanford wanted to find out what happens on the road when millions of drivers have their sleep disrupted.
Analyzing 21 years of fatal car crash data from the U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, they found a very small, but significant, increase of road deaths on the Monday after the clock shift in the spring: The number of deadly accidents jumped to an average of 83.5 on the "spring forward" Monday compared to an average of 78.2 on a typical Monday.
"We didn’t expect to see anything, actually," Richard P. Allen, the Johns Hopkins neurologist who oversaw the study. "To me it was really amazing that one hour made that difference."
So please stay safe today.
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