Permanent daylight savings time would save the lives of 33 humans and about 37,000 deer annually, according to a new study.
Published this Wednesday in the journal Current Biology, the study found that making daylight savings time permanent would help Americans spend fewer hours commuting in darkness. That could prevent over 2,000 human injuries, 33 deaths, and nearly $1.2 billion in car damage yearly.
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“The numbers are surprisingly large,” said study author Laura Prugh. Prugh is an associate professor of wildlife science at the University of Washington.
The study reports that about 440 Americans die in 2.1 million car-deer collisions each year. Deer are most active at dawn and dusk, with car accidents most likely to occur at such times.
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The U.S. Senate unanimously approved a bill to make daylight savings time permanent earlier this year. But the measure has stalled in the House of Representatives.
U.S. Representative Frank Pallone, the New Jersey Democrat who chairs the Energy and Commerce Committee, told Reuters this week, “We haven’t been able to find consensus in the House on this yet. There are a broad variety of opinions about whether to keep the status quo, to move to a permanent time, and if so, what time that should be.”
