Expectations for the solar eclipse in April are increasing. Since 2017, no part of the United States has been plunged into all-consuming daytime darkness due to a total solar eclipse; before that it was 1979. Weather permitting, the first place to fall into the path of totality will be the Pacific coast of Mexico, when the Moon hovers over the Sun, completely blocking its rays for some lucky observers on Earth.

From there, from Texas to Maine and up to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada, the path will slide into an eerie darkness that allows people to feel the movement of the Earth – just a small rocky planet hurtling through space doing a tangled dance with other celestial bodies. – like never before. The sense of completeness and its associated hyperbole is so confusing it can harm drivers: A new study shows a sharp increase in fatal crashes in the United States during the 2017 solar eclipse.

An estimated 20 million people left their homes in the United States that year to see the sun disappear. This resulted in bumper-to-bumper traffic on the roads leading to and from the integrity road; Traffic jams on some interstates lasted up to 13 hours after the main event; this combination occurred anywhere in less than three minutes.

Similar congestion is expected to occur in North America during the event in April; The worst traffic delays are expected after the eclipse, when everyone is returning home. Out of concern for people’s safety, two Canadian doctors who study road traffic injuries, Donald Redelmeier of the University of Toronto and John Staples of the University of British Columbia, calculated the number of fatal traffic accidents that occurred during the 2017 eclipse.

Using the U.S. National Traffic Fatal Registry, the duo calculated deaths on public roads during a three-day period centered around the solar eclipse on August 21, 2017. Fatal crashes increased by nearly 30 percent during the eclipse when compared to the three-day period of the week before and after the event, adjusted for day of the week.

Approximately 10 fatal accidents occurred in the hour before, on and after the eclipse, while approximately 8 deaths occurred on the roads during control periods.

“In absolute terms, this means on average one additional crash victim every 25 minutes and one additional crash victim every 95 minutes,” Redelmeier and Staples write in their paper.

The relative risk of being involved in a fatal crash was 70 percent higher than normal for young adults and 40 percent higher than on normal clear days. You were twice as likely to be involved in a serious but non-fatal car accident during the 2017 eclipse.

While the eerie onset of darkness does strange things to animals as they adapt to day-night cycles (bees stop buzzing, bats emerge, and spiders gather their webs), researchers think the causes of these traffic accidents are probably much more mundane.

Driving on unusual routes, possibly speeding to get through in time on roads not designed for many vehicles, or being caught in such a rare celestial event could explain the sudden increase in road deaths. Drunk driving or hastily parked on the side of the road, watching the solar eclipse from an unsafe location, may also have contributed to these fatal crashes.

As excitement grows, this discovery serves as a serious reminder to those making the pilgrimage to the April event to slow down and drive safely on the roads. Don’t forget to take special blackout glasses with you before you set off to protect your eyes.