driving while tired may be as dangerous as driving while drunk. You don’t have to get up an hour earlier to find yourself yawning behind the wheel. Each and every spring, Arizona becomes the envy of the entire nation. Why? Three words: Daylight Saving Time.
We don’t observe DST here in The Copper State, and that makes a lot of Americans jealous. As they battle their internal clocks to crawl out of bed and make it to work on that much-dreaded Monday morning, we go on unfazed.
Increasingly, other states are considering a switch to the Arizona model. They cite increased contentment and productivity as good reasons for a little more constancy in their lives. But there’s one other reason to pass on DST, and it’s near and dear to our hearts here.
Daylight Saving Time is associated with a nationwide increase in auto accidents. According to USA Today, in states with DST, auto accidents and workplace injuries both increase by about 6% on the first Monday and Tuesday of each time shift.
We don’t have to worry about that here in Arizona. But that doesn’t mean we’re immune to changes in time. Because we see evening arrive a little earlier here than in other places, we have a higher risk of a collision caused by low visibility. (Auto accidents are more common at night.)
And even if our clocks ring at the same time every day, there are still plenty of Arizonans who don’t get enough sleep. Driver fatigue remains a major cause of auto accident injury in Arizona and all around the world.
Indeed, driving while tired may be as dangerous as driving while drunk. You don’t have to get up an hour earlier to find yourself yawning behind the wheel.
Accordingly, we hope everyone in Arizona will join us in counting our blessings and committing to staying alert while on the road. We may not have “Saving Time,” but together, we can make every day “safety time.”
