Solar eclipses linked to a rise in deadly traffic collisions: study

The looming solar eclipse could lead to increased traffic fatalities, according to a new study.

Research from the Sunnybrook Research Institute found that the last solar eclipse, which took place on Aug. 21, 2017, was associated with a rise in road accidents.

The research comes ahead of the next solar eclipse on Apr. 8. 

The study found that a significant increase in traffic risk was observed in the U.S. that averaged out to one extra vehicle crash every 25 minutes and one extra fatality every 95 minutes. The total amounted to 46 extra deaths linked to the eclipse.  

“These increases are similar in magnitude to the increased traffic risks observed around Thanksgiving,” lead investigator of the study and professor at the University of Toronto’s Temerty Faculty of Medicine Donald Redelmeier said in a press release. 

However, the increase in collisions is difficult to attribute to drastic changes in light, researchers explained. 

Instead, the findings likely result from increased traffic, travel on unfamiliar roads, speeding to arrive on time, drivers being distracted due to a celestial event, drug-or-alcohol-impairment from related celebrations, or eclipse viewing from unsafe locations, according to a research letter published today in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Researchers used information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System, a database of deadly traffic incidents on public roads in the U.S., and focused on three days around the day of the last eclipse, deducing that a considerable amount of eclipse-related travel occurred on the days before and after the event.

Experts also engaged an official U.S. Navy calculator to “categorize crash timing relative to the moment of maximal eclipse based on location, latitude and longitude,” the release said.

A total of 1,878 individuals were involved in collisions, of whom 741 were in fatal crashes over the three-day eclipse exposure interval. Over six control days, 1,137 were in fatal crashes, corresponding to a 31 per cent increase in traffic risks around the time of the eclipse, the study found. 

Researchers are advising drivers to respect speed limits, minimize distractions, allow more headway, wear a seatbelt, and to never drive impaired.

On Apr. 8, the total solar eclipse will be within driving range for more than 200 million people in the U.S. and Canada, according to the report.

“Almost all traffic deaths can be prevented by small changes in behaviour, policy, and community awareness,” researchers concluded.