Hoping to raise awareness of pedestrian accidents in Toronto following the time change, police are launching a safety blitz. 680 News reports:

Toronto police launched a week-long pedestrian safety awareness campaign on Monday following the time change over the weekend.

As part of Step Up and Be Safe — which ends at midnight Sunday — police will be paying special attention to crosswalks, intersections and school zones with a focus on seniors.

There have been 23 pedestrian fatalities this year, accounting for over 66 per cent of traffic fatalities.

Nine of the fatalities have been senior citizens, representing 39 per cent of pedestrian fatalities.

Another study, by two researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in 2007, found that daylight time has a significant impact on the number of pedestrians killed by vehicles in the immediate aftermath of the time switch in the fall.

People walking during rush hour in the first few weeks after the clocks fall back in the autumn were more than three times as likely to be fatally struck by cars than before the change. Time of day was a factor in the findings – there was no significant difference in pedestrian accidents at noon, but number rose around 6 p.m. after clocks were moved back an hour.

The researchers, who looked at seven years of U.S. traffic statistics, also found there was a decrease in deaths when clocks spring forward.

It isn’t the darkness per se that increases the number of deaths in the fall, the researchers suggested. Rather, it’s that drivers and pedestrians have spent the previous months getting used to the light conditions, and don’t immediately adjust their behaviour to account for less light during morning rush hour.