Permanent daylight saving time would reduce deer collisions, study finds

Permanent daylight saving time would reduce the amount of deer-vehicle accidents, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal Current Biology. Researchers at the University of Washington found that year-round daylight saving would "likely prevent an estimated 36,550 deer deaths, 33 human deaths, 2,054 human injuries, and $1.19 billion in costs each year."

There are an estimated 2.1 million deer-vehicle collisions in the U.S. each year, according to the group of researchers led by postdoctoral researcher Calum Cunningham and associate professor of quantitative wildlife sciences Laura Prugh. Those crashes are responsible for around 440 human deaths and 59,000 injuries, and come with a hefty price tag of $10 billion.

"Wildlife-vehicle collisions are a huge and growing problem," Cunningham said in a press release from the University of Washington. "There are social costs — people killed and injured — and it's also a conservation problem as it's one of the largest sources of human-caused mortality of wildlife."