U.S. environmentalists say adopting constant daylight savings time for the entire calendar year could help reduce wildlife traffic accidents by 16%.
In many countries, the transition to summer and winter time is practiced. It is believed that in this way funds for the power supply of road infrastructure and premises are saved significantly. However, there are voices against this practice, as it negatively affects people’s health.
For nearly a decade, information has been collected on traffic accidents involving wildlife in the US, especially deer. It is known about more than a million such cases during the specified period, which often ended in the death of both the beast and the driver. It turned out that collisions became noticeably more frequent (14 times!) during the first two hours after sunset in the first fortnight after the transition to winter time.
Researchers believe that the matter is both in the impact of the early arrival of darkness on the visual abilities of drivers, and in the beginning of the breeding season at this time in a number of wild ungulates.
Abolishing daylight savings time and keeping daylight savings only will help save more than 36,000 animals each year, the scientists said.
