This Sunday is the start of daylight savings time. The city of Toronto has paid for plenty of advertising reminding drivers that when the time changes the number of accidents increases.
Losing one hour of sleep means lower alertness and driver reaction time. But with sunrise an hour later, it’s darker than drivers are used to during their morning commute, making it harder to see other cars, pedestrians and cyclists. This weekend, prepare your car:
- Make sure headlights, tail lights and turn signals are all working.
- Clean your windshield, all windows, change your wiper blades and fill up your windshield wiper fluid.
- It’s been unseasonably warm in Toronto this week, but most drivers still have snow tires on, check the pressures to maximize traction under the circumstances.
- Turn on your full lighting system on Monday morning. There is nothing worse than ‘phantom cars’ like those Toyota Camry drivers who think that their DRLs are headlights.
Give yourself the best chance of another successful week of motoring. Go to bed early and sleep in late this weekend. Give your internal clock a fighting chance. Get that car ready for the Monday morning commute. And be careful out there!
