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Do you know the names of the three wise monkeys? They are: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil). |
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Study Ties Time Shift, Pedestrian Deaths
Posted on Monday, November 05, 2007 (CST) by Thoth
 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 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 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 daylight saving time would save about 200 deaths
a year, the institute calculated, said spokesman Russ Rader.
"Benjamin Franklin
conceived of daylight savings 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."
Copyright: ABC News
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Re: Study Ties Time Shift, Pedestrian Deaths
by zoarian on Monday, November 05, 2007 (CST)
(User Info | Send a Message) http://fairiejewelry.com | | I live in Atlanta and people here are bad enough about using headlights during downpours, etc, but after this time change its worse, they just dont think about turning them on and suddenly its dark out; theyre on their cell, clueless and dangerous and driving in the dark. Its also believed to be a gang initiation to drive w/out them; i dont know why they think thats cool but they do. |
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