Permanent Daylight Saving Time Would Reduce Deer-Vehicle Collisions, Study States

Posted: November 4, 2022 1:13 pm

Daylight saving time is something that annoys most people twice a year as they adjust their bodies to new waking and sleeping times, but a new study revealed that the United States adopting permanent daylight saving time would save tens of thousands of deer and dozens of people from dying in deer-vehicle accidents.

The reason why 36,550 deer and 33 people would be saved and 2,054 injuries to people would not happen is because of the impact of having sunset occur an hour later than is currently the case during a third of the year, during the winter months.

Specifically, vehicle-deer collisions are 14 times more likely to occur in the two hours after sunset as contrasted with the two hours prior to sunrise, and those two after-sunset hours would then have quieter roads.

The study also pointed out that the first week after the clocks revert to standard time, from early November to the middle of that month, deer-vehicle collisions increased at a 16% rate irrespective of other factors.

The estimated monetary savings related to a reduction in deer-vehicle collisions that would occur as a result of this time change is $1.2 billion.

However, one of the concerns of going this route is how late sunrise would be in some parts of the country. For example, in Grand Rapids, Mich., sunrise would be at 9:11 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2022, instead of 8:11 a.m., when it will in fact be later this year. Meanwhile, sunset there on that date would be moved from 5:11 p.m. to 6:11 p.m. if a change to permanent daylight saving time was put into effect.

Will Daylight Saving Time Become Permanent?

The U.S. government is halfway to making daylight saving time permanent, but it appears that this is where those efforts are going to stall.

On March 15, 2022, just two days after the clocks were most recently moved forward, the Senate passed legislation that would put permanent daylight saving time into effect on Nov. 5, 2023, in 48 states, all except for Arizona and Hawaii, which would remain on permanent standard time. It received unanimous approval through a voice vote.

However, it must also be passed by the House of Representatives before President Joe Biden receives an opportunity to sign it into law.

That next step for the Sunshine Protection Act of 2021 has proven to be an especially difficult one to hurdle as the House has not yet voted on it, and it appears that this is unlikely to happen prior to new electees taking office.

This is despite a recent poll showing that 57% of Americans want their clocks to never change; 44% prefer permanent daylight saving time while 13% of respondents voiced a preference for permanent standard time.

That the support that exists is not more significantly in favor of one side or the other – i.e. permanent daylight saving time or permanent standard time – has also caused lawmakers to hesitate to take a vote.

Mexico Mostly Abolishes Daylight Saving Time

On Oct. 26, 2022, a bill that abolished daylight saving time in nearly all of Mexico was passed by its Senate, and clocks in most of that country are being changed for the final time on Nov. 6, 2022. The only exceptions are some communities that border the U.S. as those will receive the opportunity to retain changing their clocks twice a year, presumably because they are deeply tied with neighboring U.S. cities.

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