There is a surprising risk that comes with the upcoming total solar eclipse. It has to do with the roads, not people's eyesight. CNN says that researchers have found that there are more car accidents around eclipse times, just like there are more accidents around holidays like Thanksgiving. A study that came out Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine shows that car accidents have gone up by 31%. "In absolute terms, this averaged to 1 extra crash-involved person every 25 minutes and 1 extra crash fatality every 95 minutes," they say.
But it is not because cars are distracted by the change in light. More so, a lot of people are going to parties to watch the eclipse the day before and after the big event, and maybe even drinking at parties on the day of the event. "One surprise I did not see coming was that the risks do not happen at the exact moment of totality," says Dr. Don Redelmeier, co-author of the study and from the University of Toronto. "It is not when everything is dark and black and chilly, but instead, they occur in the hours before and after."
On a large part of the US, the eclipse will happen in the afternoon of April 8. (Look at this picture from NASA.) As people plan their trips to see the eclipse, they might want to remember that crashes rose by 50% in the hours right after it happened. This research looked at crashes that happened on US roads three days before, during, and after the last eclipse in 2017. The National Post says that the most dangerous time was between 6 and 7 p.m. on the day of the eclipse, which is a long time after it was over.
But it is not because cars are distracted by the change in light. More so, a lot of people are going to parties to watch the eclipse the day before and after the big event, and maybe even drinking at parties on the day of the event. "One surprise I did not see coming was that the risks do not happen at the exact moment of totality," says Dr. Don Redelmeier, co-author of the study and from the University of Toronto. "It is not when everything is dark and black and chilly, but instead, they occur in the hours before and after."
On a large part of the US, the eclipse will happen in the afternoon of April 8. (Look at this picture from NASA.) As people plan their trips to see the eclipse, they might want to remember that crashes rose by 50% in the hours right after it happened. This research looked at crashes that happened on US roads three days before, during, and after the last eclipse in 2017. The National Post says that the most dangerous time was between 6 and 7 p.m. on the day of the eclipse, which is a long time after it was over.
