ORLANDO, Fla. — With clocks turned back, Central Florida drivers are adjusting to earlier sunsets and more time behind the wheel after dark.
The change is a reminder to leave extra room around large trucks, avoid their blind spots and prepare for reduced visibility during the evening commute.
Daylight saving time ended Sunday, Nov. 1, shifting sunset an hour earlier on the clock.
What Florida’s crash numbers show
Florida recorded 1,882 traffic deaths in crashes classified as occurring in dark conditions in 2023, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles’ Traffic Crash Facts report.
That represents about 56% of the 3,375 traffic deaths recorded that year. The dark-condition categories include both lighted and unlighted roads.
Those figures cover all types of traffic crashes, rather than only collisions involving trucks. They also do not establish that darkness caused each crash.
Give large trucks room
The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration warns that large trucks and buses have substantial blind spots, need longer stopping distances and make wide turns.
The agency recommends that drivers:
- Avoid lingering alongside trucks. If you cannot see the driver’s face in the truck’s side mirror, the driver cannot see you.
- Pass carefully. Pass on the left and make sure the truck is visible in your rearview mirror before moving back into its lane.
- Leave space. Avoid cutting closely in front of a truck or following so closely that you cannot see traffic ahead.
- Watch for wide turns. Never squeeze between a turning truck and the curb.
In a news release about the darker commute, Florida personal injury firm Brooks Law Group also urged drivers to adjust their habits around commercial vehicles.
“The clock change didn’t add a single truck to the road, but it changed how well drivers can see the ones around them,” Steve Brooks of Brooks Law Group said.
Move over for roadside vehicles
Florida’s Move Over law also protects disabled vehicles stopped with hazard lights, emergency flares or signage, or with people visibly present.
On a multilane road, drivers must move out of the lane closest to the stopped vehicle when safe. If they cannot safely move over, they must slow to 20 mph below the posted speed limit. When the limit is 20 mph or less, drivers must slow to 5 mph.
Daylight saving time is scheduled to return March 14, 2027. Sunset gradually gets later before then as winter gives way to spring.
Click here to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.