David Biderman
With Daylight Savings Time (DST) ending this coming weekend (November 1, turn the clock back one hour), it will be getting dark an hour earlier. This means in much of the United States, sunset will be around 5pm or earlier during most of November and December.聽 After months of sunlight in the evening, we will making our way home from work in a car, on mass transit, on foot, or on a bicycle, in the dark.
Not surprisingly, studies show that the end of DST correlates with an increase in collisions involving cars and trucks. According to data analyzed by the , fatal pedestrian and bicyclist crashes increase 13% to 19% after the fall time change because evening commutes happen in the dark.聽 There is also a 16% increase in vehicle collisions with deer in the first week after clocks fall back, as animal movement overlaps with darker driving conditions.
A few years ago, I participated in a New York City 鈥淒usk to Darkness鈥� event near City Hall where City officials and I reminded New Yorkers that the impending time change results in increased dangers to pedestrians and other road users. This annual campaign serves as a timely way to remind all road users 鈥� including drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists and others 鈥� to be safety-aware on the street. I encourage more cities to engage in this type of public service messaging.
Unfortunately, even before the end of Daylight Savings Time, a tragedy occurred in New York City, as a pedestrian was struck and killed by a garbage truck in Brooklyn. On Wednesday, October 28 at about 6:30pm, a 40 year old woman named Siobhan Lynch was . This was about 30 minutes after sunset, and serves as a tragic reminder that collecting waste and recycling can result in a fatal collision at any time, anywhere.
Although a lot of attention is given to the number of collection worker fatalities suffered in the waste industry each year, there is less focus on the fact that our trucks are involved in as many as 100 fatal collisions annually. The Brooklyn collision occurred the day after a turning truck in New York struck and killed someone in a wheelchair.
The investigations into these two tragedies are just beginning, and it is too early to assign blame or fault. For now, and especially in the darker weeks to come, let鈥檚 use them as reminders to our drivers to be very careful on the street 鈥� particularly when turning, and especially during evening rush hour.