Ooooooh, spooky!
Image: Just_Bernard
Today is the big, bad Friday the 13th. Luckily for us, May 13th is the only Friday the 13th in this calendar year, and we need the break after three unlucky days in 2015. Many of us live our lives as normal, but the more superstitious of us might attempt to stay home curled in bed to avoid possibly running into a black cat or having to walk under a ladder. Is Friday the 13th truly such a horrible date?
According to The Telegraph, there are actually fewer car accidents on Friday the 13th than on Thursday the 12th. If a car accident or other mishap did occur, the insurance claim filed was likely to be for hundreds of dollars less than the average. British home insurer Policy Expert estimates that the lower numbers are thanks to an overwhelming amount of caution exercised by drivers because they are so nervous.
This Friday the 13th is extra unlucky, as it’s also a full moon. More superstitions swirl around that particular natural occurrence, but ABC News reports that a study in Austria found no credible connection between the full moon and injuries. From 2000 to 2004, researchers took a look at 500,000 industrial accidents and found that the fullness of the moon had little to no impact on the amount of incidents each day.
Studies have gone back and forth validating each side of the full moon argument, many scientists are of the mind that the moon is too far away and humans are too tiny for the full moon to have an effect on us.
Regardless of whether you’re superstitious or not, be careful on the roads today and everyday as you go about your business.
News Sources: The Telegraph and ABC News
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