April 8 total solar eclipse could bring uptick in fatal car crashes, scientists caution

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Nicoletta Lanese is a staff writer for Live Science covering health and medicine, along with an assortment of biology, animal, environment and climate stories. She holds degrees in neuroscience and dance from the University of Florida and a graduate certificate in science communication from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Electronic signs along Interstate 15 warn travelers of potential traffic issues due to the upcoming solar eclipse on Saturday, Oct. 14, in this photo taken on Oct. 10, 2023 in Cedar City, Utah. — the U.S. saw a brief-but-significant increase in fatal crashes, researchers warned in a research letter published Monday in the journal

In addition, they used a U.S. Navy calculator to determine the timing of each crash relative to the time of maximal eclipse, based on the accident site's latitude and longitude. Put in other words, around the eclipse, about 10.3 people were involved in fatal crashes per hour, compared with 7.9 people per hour on the comparison days."This averaged to 1 extra crash-involved person every 25 minutes and 1 extra crash fatality every 95 minutes," the researchers wrote.

It's worth noting that the new study highlighted only fatal crashes. And while it's likely that the eclipse traffic was also tied to less-severe accidents,"we just don't have the data on that," Redelmeier noted. Nor did the data differentiate between those who traveled to watch the eclipse and those who didn't but were nonetheless caught in eclipse-related traffic.

 

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