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‘Falling Back’ to Shorter Days Means Taking Extra Care on the Road<\/span> ‘Falling Back’ to Shorter Days Means Taking Extra Care on the Road Shorter days, fatigue, compromised night […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":840,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":null,"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.primeroinstx.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nShorter days, fatigue, compromised night vision, rush hour and impaired drivers are some of the risks we face when driving at night. These risks become especially pronounced moving into the weekend, with fatal crashes peaking on Saturday nights.<\/span>
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\nWhen Daylight Saving Time ends – for 2023, that’s 2 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 5 – many people will find themselves spending more time driving in the dark. When you are driving at night, depth perception, color recognition and peripheral vision can be compromised in the dark, and the glare of headlights from an oncoming vehicle can temporarily blind a driver.<\/span>
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\nNight driving is dangerous because, even with high-beam headlights on, visibility is limited to about 500 feet (250 feet for normal headlights) creating less time to react to something in the road, especially when driving at higher speeds.<\/span>
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\nWhat should you do to combat darkness?<\/span>
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\n\u25cf Aim your headlights correctly, and make sure they’re clean<\/span>
\n\u25cf Dim your dashboard<\/span>
\n\u25cf Look away from oncoming lights<\/span>
\n\u25cf If you wear glasses, make sure they’re anti-reflective<\/span>
\n\u25cf Clean the windshield to eliminate streaks<\/span>
\n\u25cf Slow down to compensate for limited visibility and reduced stopping time.<\/span>
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\nCompromised Night Vision<\/span>
\nNight vision is the ability to see well in low-light conditions. As we age, we have greater difficulty seeing at night. A 50-year-old driver may need twice as much light to see as well as a 30-year-old. At age 60 and older, driving can become even more difficult. Some older drivers also may have compromised vision due to cataracts and degenerative eye diseases.<\/span>
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\nOlder drivers should:<\/span>
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\n\u25cf Have annual vision exams<\/span>
\n\u25cf Reduce speed<\/span>
\n\u25cf Take a driving course, like this one offered by NSC; even experienced drivers can benefit from a refresher course<\/span>
\n\u25cf Minimize distractions, like talking with passengers or listening to the radio<\/span>
\n\u25cf Check with your doctor about side effects of prescription drugs<\/span>
\n\u25cf Limit driving to daytime hours if necessary<\/span>
\n
\nAdditional tips for older adult drivers can be found here.<\/span>
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\nFatigue<\/span>
\nA National Sleep Foundation poll says 60% of adults have driven while they were tired, and another 37%, or 103 million people, have fallen asleep at the wheel. Of those, 13% say they fall asleep while driving at least once a month, and 4% say they have caused a crash by falling asleep while driving. The reasons are many – shift work, lack of quality sleep, long work hours, sleep disorders – and it doesn’t only happen on lengthy trips.<\/span>
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\nThese staggering numbers are backed up by a report by NHTSA that 100,000 police-reported crashes are a result of driver fatigue. Most crashes or near-misses happen at the times you would expect drivers to be tired: 4 to 6 a.m., midnight to 2 a.m. and 2 to 4 p.m., according to NSF.<\/span>
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\nDrowsy driving puts everyone on the road at risk. Losing two hours of sleep has the same effect on driving as having three beers, and tired drivers are three times more likely to be in a car crash if they are fatigued.<\/span>
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\nThe National Sleep Foundation offers this advice:<\/span>
\n
\n\u25cf Get seven or more hours of sleep a night<\/span>
\n\u25cf Don’t drive if you’ve been awake for 16 hours or more<\/span>
\n\u25cf Stop every two hours to rest<\/span>
\n\u25cf Pull over and take a nap if you’re drowsy<\/span>
\n\u25cf Travel during times you are normally awake<\/span>
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\nRush Hour<\/span>
\nEvening rush hour (between 4 and 7 p.m. weekdays) is a dangerous time to drive due to crowded roadways and drivers eager to get home after work. In winter, it’s dark during rush hour, compounding an already dangerous driving situation.<\/span>
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\nHow can you make it home safely during rush hour?<\/span>
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\n\u25cf Don’t be an impatient driver; slow down<\/span>
\n\u25cf Stay in your lane and beware of drivers who dart from lane to lane<\/span>
\n\u25cf Even though the route may be familiar, don’t go on autopilot; stay alert<\/span>
\n\u25cf In unfamiliar areas, consult a map before you go and memorize your route<\/span>
\n\u25cf Don’t touch your phone, eat, drink or do other things that are distracting<\/span>
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\nImpaired Drivers<\/span>
\nAbout one-third of all traffic fatalities involve a driver impaired by alcohol. Drivers impaired by prescription medicines and other drugs increase that number significantly. Impaired drivers are most frequently on the road after dark – particularly between the hours of midnight and 3 a.m. on weekends.<\/span>
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\nIn addition to drunk driving, the number of drivers under the influence of other drugs has increased, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. NHTSA’s Crash Risk study estimates the odds of being involved in a crash if a driver is impaired at the time of testing.<\/span>
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\nMany states have not yet updated their impaired driving laws to address this growing problem.<\/span>
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\nStay Alert, Stay Alive<\/span>
\nWhile we do only one quarter of our driving at night, 50% of traffic deaths happen at night. It doesn’t matter whether the road is familiar or not, driving at night is always more dangerous. More than 42,000 people were killed in car crashes in 2020, according to Injury Facts. By taking some extra precautions, we can all contribute to reducing these numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"