Daylight Savings Time Changes and Construction Accidents

Abstract

Recent research has shown that the frequency of traffic accidents is influenced by changes in clocks from standard time to daylight savings time. A study was conducted to determine if a similar phenomenon existed with the occurrence of injuries in the construction industry. Data relating to injury claims of construction workers in the state of Washington for 1900–1996 were analyzed to determine if stress due to the change in time from standard to daylight savings in the spring and from daylight savings to standard time in the fall, respectively, resulted in an increase and decrease in construction accidents. For spring and fall, with respect to injury frequency, the injury frequency for the Monday following the change of time was compared with that of the Monday before the change, and the Monday 1 week later. No statistical differences were found to exist. In addition, injury statistics for the week before the change were compared with the week following the change. Again, no statistical differences between the two were found to exist.