Summer Jokes: Why Kiwi Motorists Need To Be Very Careful

As if we haven’t been through enough this year, new research has found that Sunday’s switch to daylight saving time increases our chances of prancing the car, especially on the first day.

Clocks tick one hour at 2 a.m. Sunday, and while farmers milking cows in early fall darkness have for years criticized our biennial clock change, most of the country’s urban dwellers welcome its long hours. illuminated afternoons.

Tomorrow the sun will rise in Auckland at 6.04am. M. And it will be set at 6.20 p.m. M. On Sunday, advance one hour each, without the sun going back until 6 am until mid-November.

But it’s not just early risers with reason to grimace.

Research from the University of Auckland has shown that motorists face their own challenges, with the onset of daylight saving time linked to an increase in road accidents.

The paper, based on ACC data covering 12.6 million claims between 2005 and 2016 and written by Professor David Robb of the university’s faculty of economics and business and London-based Thomas Barnes, found that the watch biological is not as easily changed as mechanical.

By giving new meaning to the Covid-19 message of staying home, saving lives, Sunday could be a good day not to venture anywhere: Data showed that traffic accidents increased 16 percent on the day in the clocks tick, Robb and Barnes found.

“[And] Since the Sunday daylight saving time begins only 23 hours, the average accident rate is 23 percent higher. “

By Monday, the increase is down to 12 percent before halving to 6 percent for the rest of the work week.

The news was better for the risk of falls or mishaps in the home and community: Accident rates drop before the clocks change, suggesting that people changed their behaviors before the change, Robb and Barnes found.

Work is also a good option on Sundays, as research shows that changes to daylight saving time had little impact on workplace accident rates.

And in another nod to 2020 haters counting the days to 2021, there was more good news.

Although crashes are more likely on Sunday as we lose an hour of rest, the same cannot be said when clocks turn back one hour on April 4, Robb and Barnes said.

“The study found an increase in the rate of traffic accidents at the beginning of summer time in spring, but no significant effect at the end of summer time in fall.”