With April’s total solar eclipse fast approaching, we’ve had our
Looking at 2017’s total eclipse, researchers found that fatal road accidents spiked in the US during the event, as an estimated 20 million people traveled away from their homes to view it.
“We found a significant increase in traffic risk in the U.S. around the time of the total eclipse, averaging to one extra vehicle crash every 25 minutes and one extra crash fatality every 95 minutes. The total amounted to 46 extra deaths linked to the eclipse,” Donald Redelmeier, lead investigator of the study, said in a
A total solar eclipse occurs when the Moon temporarily obscures our view of the Sun and casts a dark shadow across the Earth. However, it likely wasn’t the change in light that was responsible for the observed increase in accidents. Instead, the researchers think that increased traffic as people clamored to
“The findings likely derive from increased traffic, travel on unfamiliar routes, speeding to arrive on time, driver distraction by a celestial event, drug-or-alcohol-impairment from related celebrations, or eclipse viewing from unsafe roadside locations,” explained Redelmeier.
Using data from a national registry of fatal crashes on public roads, Redelmeier and co-author John Staples looked at incidents over a three-day period, centered on August 21, 2017 – the date of the last eclipse. They then compared to a three-day window a week before and afterward.
Over the three-day eclipse exposure period, a total of 741 individuals were involved in fatal crashes, whereas 1,137 individuals were involved in fatal collisions over the six control days. That’s the equivalent of 10.3 and 7.9 deaths per hour, respectively – and a 31 percent increase in traffic risks around the time of the eclipse.
The next eclipse in the contiguous US, after April’s, won’t happen until 2044, so it’s likely the roads will be busy once again. With that in mind, the researchers advise that drivers take precautions if venturing out during the event.
“The
The study is published in