Tonight we “spring ahead” that will cost us an hour sleep but the steeper price for drivers could be paid in the days following the time change.
Trace Acres, Program Director for Road Safety at Work said it’s only an hour but he thinks a lot of people overlook it.
“It can have a fairly significant impact on road safety because it does lead to fatigue and as we know fatigue leads to crashes. A fatigued driver typically has typically slower reaction time, being able to react to other vehicles, pedestrians, wildlife on the road, road hazards. A fatigue driver can be a hazardous driver and we just want make sure that everyone is keeping it as safe as they can.”
The risk is limited to the morning after the time change, the lost hour of sleep can disrupt sleep cycles for days.
“Jet lag is is fairly good comparison to how we feel after a time change,” Acres said. “When we’re significantly jet lagged that can last a week or even longer. So that one hour time change can throw off your rhythm and certainly on Monday morning you’ll be driving to work or driving the kids to school maybe an hour earlier then your body is use to so your body is telling you that it’s not quite time to wake up yet and that can last for a couple of days.”
Road Safety at Work said the impact of the time change isn’t limited to fatigue, because the clocks will have moved ahead, early morning drivers will have reduced visibility as they travel in the dark.
Something going on in the Cariboo you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing cariboonews@vistaradio.ca.
