Although this will be the last time B.C. “springs forward,” Road Safety at Work is reminding drivers that time change fatigue lingers more than people think.
Road Safety at Work, a provincial injury reduction initiative, said disrupted sleep can quietly build fatigue over serval days, leaving drivers less alert and more vulnerable to crashes.
Trace Acres, program director for Road Safety at Work, said drivers in Revelstoke are subject to more extreme winter weather longer than other parts of the province.
“Winter can strike really up until the end of April, anytime without warning,” he said. “But fatigue doesn’t reset overnight. Even small disruptions to sleep can accumulate, affecting reaction time, judgment, and attention for days afterward.”
Acres added that a time-change is like a “mini-jet lag” and that people should consider all safety risks even if the time-change is small.
According to ICBC, an average of 513 people in the province are injured or killed in fatigue-related crashes each year.
Acres encouraged drivers to treat the following week as a high-risk period, not a one-day adjustment.
“It may be the last one (time-change) that we will have to deal with, but that’s not the reason to dismiss it,” he said. “[We] need to be alert to the potential for fatigue.”
He encouraged those who drive to prioritize their sleep, eat healthy foods and consider how one’s actions can affect others.
