It’s common knowledge now that there’s a total solar eclipse approaching on April 8. But researchers are sounding alarms about the potential hazards on the road eclipses bring. Insights from the 2017 total solar eclipse indicate a troubling surge in fatal car accidents during similar astronomical (and astrological) events. An analysis done by the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto offers a rough forecast, revealing that the upcoming eclipse may show a significant uptick in road fatalities.1
The Total Eclipse Study
Dr. Donald Redelmeier, a professor at the University of Toronto and one of the study’s authors, emphasized that “[t]he increased risks likely derive from increased traffic, travel on unfamiliar routes, speeding to arrive on time, driver distraction by a celestial event, drug or alcohol impairment, or eclipse viewing from unsafe roadside locations.” Seems like a bit of a wide net to blame on an eclipse, but the numbers don’t lie.
The research scrutinized the traffic dynamics during the 2017 total solar eclipse, uncovering a problematic pattern. Over the three days during the last eclipse, there were 741 fatalities due to traffic accidents, translating to a staggering 10.3 deaths per hour. By contrast, the corresponding figure for control days stood at 7.9 fatalities per hour, a 31% surge in fatal crash involvement.
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