Clocks turn back this weekend on Sunday 2 am
Newslooks- WASHINGTON (AP)
A transition is coming across most of the United States, and it has nothing to do with the election.
Daylight saving time is out, standard time is in this weekend.
Standard time begins at 2 a.m. local time Sunday and lasts until March 12. At 2 a.m. ET on Sunday, clocks in the U.S. will turn back one hour as daylight saving time ends, marking the beginning of winter’s dark evenings.
Relish the chance to catch up on sleep and remember to set clocks back an hour before going to bed Saturday night. The time change means darkness will arrive earlier in the evening but it will be lighter earlier in the morning than now.
Hawaii, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and most of Arizona do not observe daylight saving time.
The twice-a-year ritual has led some members of Congress to push to make daylight saving time permanent.
The Senate in March passed a bipartisan bill, named the Sunshine Protection Act, to end the back and forth. The House has not acted on the measure.
Proponents said the idea would have positive effects on public health and the economy and even cut energy consumption.
The change often renews the longstanding debate about the tradition. In March, the Senate weighed in, unanimously voting in favor of the Sunshine Protection Act, which would make daylight saving time permanent year-round for all states but Hawaii and most of Arizona, which would continue to observe year-round standard time. But the bill has stalled in the House.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who introduced the act, suggested it would reduce crime, encourage kids to play outside and lower the risk of heart attacks and car accidents.
“There’s some strong science behind it that is now showing and making people aware of the harm that clock-switching has,” Rubio said on the Senate floor in March.
Indeed, a 2020 study found that fatal traffic accidents in the U.S. rose 6% in the week after daylight saving started. Other studies have found that the switch to daylight saving brings small increases in workplace injuries and medical errors in the days following the change. A 2019 study, meanwhile, found that the risk of heart attacks went up in the week after clocks sprung forward, though other research did not find such an increase.
Those studies mostly looked at the immediate effects of turning clocks forward. But Steve Calandrillo, a law professor at the University of Washington, said people do benefit from sunlight later in the day, since that’s when car crashes are more common.
A 2004 study estimated that switching to year-round daylight saving would result in 171 fewer pedestrian deaths each year and 195 fewer deaths among car drivers or passengers. Another study, published Wednesday, predicted that year-round daylight saving time would prevent 33 deaths and around 2,000 injuries among humans each year by reducing deer-vehicle collisions.
