As the National Day holiday draws near, many car owners in Anhui plan to tour around on their own behind the wheel. The traffic police department in Hefei city has released the following driving note for those who travel by driving, warning them of three dangerous periods of time on the roads:

Wee hours: 1 am to 3 am

During this period, everything seems to be asleep and quiet, which makes the driver feel like he or she is the lone driver on the road and is tempted to speed. However, in the middle of the night, the body’s biological rhythm is such that the brain responds slowly, blood pressure drops, and so hand and foot reactions are slow. Because of extreme fatigue, people with poor cardiovascular functions are likely to have heart attacks, myocardial infarction and cerebral thrombosis, which are latent factors that can cause traffic accidents.

At noon: 11 am to 1 pm

At this time, the driver often feels fatigue at noon, so his or her responsiveness decreases. Also, some long-distance drivers are anxious to reach their destination and sometimes may delay having their meals when they are hungry. However, when the body needs more energy from food, hands and feet are weak, thus prone to having accidents. However, after lunch, blood will flow to the gastrointestinal and other digestive organs, reducing blood supply to the brain. Therefore drowsiness and distractions happen, which is dangerous for drivers.

Towards evening: 5 pm to 7 pm

According to statistics, 25 percent of all accidents occur from 5 pm to 7 pm. At dusk, the driver can be prone to having visual impairments which can lead to misjudgments. After a day's journey with fatigue, people can have dry eyes, a dry throat, dizziness, ringing in the ears, sweating, yawning and a series of fatigue symptoms. In addition, pedestrians can have unclear observations due to visual impairments, and they too may misjudge the distance of passing vehicles, which can cause traffic accidents.
Agencies and Li Ming contributed to this story

Source: Global Times