RAINY weather influences road deaths in a far more complicated way than previously thought. Rain does not increase the number of deaths in crashes, provided it rained the previous day. But a heavy shower after a dry spell causes a lethal surge in accidents.
Daniel Eisenberg of the University of California, Berkeley, stumbled across the link while studying the dangers of driving under the influence of drugs. He knew that there are more accidents on rainy days and wanted to show that this factor wasn’t influencing his results.
But when Eisenberg calculated the annual and monthly figures for rainfall taken…
