All wound up about clock change

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It is the weekend many people dread – the time of year when clocks fall back an hour; heralding in dusk and nightfall much earlier.

“What’s the point?” asked Bill Watson.

“I don’t see the point of it anymore. I understand years ago, hundreds of years ago it was done for farmers and harvesting and all that kind of stuff. But that doesn’t happen much in urban centres obviously.”

“Let’s put an end to that,” said Donna Watson while out for a walk on sunny Friday.

“We live in Canada and there is so much snow. Isn’t it wonderful just to have a little bit of sunlight that stretches out a little bit.”

With the weekend time-shift, Toronto Police launched campaign running from Nov. 5-14 to raise awareness about the traffic risks and dangers once it gets darker earlier.

“People describe the time change as a few days of jetlag,” Traffic Services Const. Sean Shapiro said.

According to Police, 49 people have been killed on Toronto roads so far this year — and 21 of those killed were pedestrians.

Historically, there has been a 30% increase in pedestrian-involved collisions in Toronto in the weeks surrounding the time change, police say.

“Those little changes of your reaction time could lead to a collision and we want to try and prevent that,” said Shapiro.

According to the Traffic Injury Research Foundation, what police have observed in terms of an increase in collisions is supported by their studies.

“There is a real risk of people driving while fatigued,” said Steve Brown, of the Foundation.

Along with the police safety campaign this month, Toronto is urging all road users to stay alert and obey the rules of the road as daylight saving time ends.

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Last November, Progressive Conservative MPP Jeremy Roberts tabled a bill – which was passed – to do away with the change.

It received all party support.

But the province said it needs Quebec and New York to match the move before locking in any kind of change.

Still, there is a definitive appetite for it.

“It needs to be stopped. Just end it. It doesn’t make any sense anymore,” said Trish Adams.

“It was for farmers. It doesn’t work anymore. To lose daylight at this time of year is bad.”

slaurie@postmedia.com