[conspire] Ti-i-i-ime, is on my side, yes it is

[Nick Moffitt]

On 08Mar2020 07:08pm (-0700), Rick Moen wrote:
> FWIW, I've lodged on the 'Just leave everyone on Standard Time, for
> heaven's sake' side of this interminable argument for many long
> decades.[1]  One of the many bits of badness known to ensue from the
> 'spring forward' change is a spike in death rates broadly across society
> for the following ~week or so[2], subtle effects of people suddenly
> needing to remain functional despite a sleep deficit.
[...]
> [2] Heart attacks, traffic accidents, workplace injuries, and accidental deaths.
> https://www.ibtimes.com/daylight-saving-time-why-monday-after-springing-forward-deadly-day-1840534
> (By implication, 'fall back' gives people a bit of respite by sending
> them off to work a bit more rested, but falloffs in deaths have not been
> statistically noted.)

Things get really hairy when you look at the Wilson government's "British Standard Time" experiment (mentioned elsethread).  Road KSIs (which were a near-constant bloodbath back then, surpassed only by the 1920s when widespread motoring was still new) dropped sharply over the period.

It was only 20 years later that researchers noted that the UK had outlawed drunk driving during this time; when you controlled for that using figures from other countries, it removed any apparent benefit from clock-changing.  Still, you sometimes hear boomers insist that BST saved lives back then.