Standard time's return means increased crash risk for Long Island drivers
A Newsday analysis of four years of Department of Motor Vehicles crash data shows that collisions increased 58% in the 5 to 6 p.m. hour across Long Island following the transition from daylight savings to standard time. Credit: Newsday/Steve Pfost
Long Island drivers would be wise to take extra precautions on their evening commutes over the next few weeks, as crashes tend to rise following "fall back" day, when daylight saving ends.
A Newsday analysis of four years of Department of Motor Vehicles crash data shows that collisions increased 58% in the 5 to 6 p.m. hour across Long Island following the time transition. That’s in line with a recent statewide analysis by AAA, which found a 65% increase in crashes in November as compared with October for the same years.
Following federal law, clocks were set back one hour Sunday, giving Halloween revelers an extra hour to celebrate; the mid-Island sunset went from roughly 5:50 p.m. to 4:50 p.m.
"The end of daylight saving time brings a combination of disrupted sleep schedules and earlier sunsets that can throw drivers off," said Robert Sinclair of AAA Northeast.
AAA recommends getting enough sleep, staying vigilant, and driving slower to reduce risk. Other tips include ensuring one’s headlights are in good working order and keeping one’s windshield clean — like by replacing old wiper blades — to reduce glare.
Congress debated, but ultimately failed to pass, a law this year that would have gotten rid of fall and winter’s "standard time" hours and adopted spring and summer’s "daylight saving time" hours year-round. The bill passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support but stalled in the Senate.
Newsday's analysis looked at the five weeks before and the five weeks after the spring and fall transition for each year from 2021 to 2024. Other than between 5 and 6 p.m., the analysis found no clear pattern for crashes on Long Island in the rest of the 24-hour period.
A widely cited peer-reviewed academic study published in 2020 found that nationwide, "spring forward" is associated with about 28 extra fatal crashes — likely due to sleep deprivation, disrupted circadian rhythms and darker mornings — each year. Still, that’s a tiny fraction of the more than 35,000 to 40,000 people killed annually in collisions.
Another study by researchers at the University of Washington found that the fall transition causes a 16% increase in deer-vehicle collisions, which cause more than $1.1 billion in damage annually nationwide.
Deer are especially active in the fall mating season, increasing the risk of crashes around the end of daylight saving hours. Newsday has previously reported that deer overpopulation has led to a surge in deer-vehicle collisions in recent years, especially in Suffolk but with a growing number in Nassau County also.
A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that taken together, the fall and spring transitions lead to 29 extra fatal vehicle-occupant crashes nationwide but 26 fewer fatal pedestrian and cyclist collisions each year.
"These findings won’t end the debate about daylight saving time," IIHS president David Harkey said at the time. "The benefits for bicyclists and pedestrians are important ... [but] they’re largely offset by an increase in crashes in which vehicle occupants were killed."
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