“It Was Already Dark at Five!” | Hurt on the Drive Home: Evening Crashes After the Clocks Change

A woman sits in her parked car at dusk with a hand to the back of her head, street lights reflecting on the wet road.

One Monday in November, you leave work at the usual time and it's already dark. Your eyes adjust, the roads are wet, and everyone around you is tired and in a hurry to get home.

Evening collisions rise in the weeks after the clocks go back in the fall. If you're hurt in a crash on the way home from work, it's usually handled as a car accident claim rather than a workplace injury, unless you were driving as part of your job. Either way, get assessed, report the collision and start a dated record the same day.

Why do evening crashes rise after the time change?

Because the evening commute moves into darkness overnight. Drivers are adjusting to the new light, pedestrians in dark clothing are harder to see, and sleep patterns take a few days to settle.

The numbers bear it out. SAAQ data from Quebec found that injury-causing crashes between 5:00 and 8:00 p.m. rose by more than 25 percent in the 30 days after the fall time change. ICBC reports pedestrian collisions typically increase in October and November.

In Canada, clocks go back on the first Sunday in November in most provinces and territories.

Is a crash on the way home a workplace injury?

Usually not. In most of Canada, the ordinary drive between home and work isn't treated as work for compensation purposes, so a crash on your commute is generally a car accident claim through auto insurance.

It can be different if driving is part of your job. A delivery, a trip between work sites, a drive to a client or a vehicle your employer requires you to use may bring a workplace claim into the picture, and in some cases you may have to choose between the two. That choice can carry its own deadline.

If you're unsure which applies, tell both your employer and your insurer what happened, and check the rules where you live. Our article on what to do after a workplace injury in Canada covers the work side.

What should you do in the first 24 hours?

Get assessed, even if you feel alright. Adrenaline can hide an injury for hours, and a tired evening can make it easy to go straight to bed instead. Our article on why car accident injuries sometimes appear days later explains what to watch for.

Report the collision. Reporting deadlines are set by each province and territory, and some are short. The first 72 hours sets out what needs to happen early.

Tell your employer if you'll miss work. Note the date, who you told and what they said.

What are you allowed to do?

You are allowed to say the light and the glare made it hard to see, and to have that written down.

You are allowed to take time before driving at night again.

You are allowed to report a symptom that shows up two days later.

You are allowed to ask your employer about modified hours or duties while you recover.

What should you record after an evening crash?

What to record Why it helps
The time, the light, the weather and the road conditions Evening conditions change fast and are hard to rebuild later
Where you were going and why Answers whether it was a commute or part of your job
Every symptom and the date it first appeared Connects each injury to the collision
Work missed, shifts changed and who you told Shows the effect on your income and your job
How you're getting to work now, and any fear of driving at night Captures the part of recovery nobody else sees

The National MVA Recovery Guide keeps all of it in one place. If driving is part of your work, the National Workplace Injury Recovery Guide holds the workplace side.

Keep your recovery in one place

The national guides cover what applies anywhere in Canada. Your provincial Companion Guide adds the insurer or board, the forms and the deadlines where you live.

Why use Hurt Square?

Because a crash in the dark leaves details that fade fast: the light, the road and the first symptoms. Hurt Square guides give you one place to keep it all.

  • The crash and every day after it. The National MVA Recovery Guide has space for the first hours after your accident, daily pain and symptom tracking, every appointment and every expense.
  • Your province's rules, in plain words. The MVA Companion Guide for your province or territory holds the deadlines, forms and insurer routes where you live.
  • Made for hard days. 192 pages and more than 1,600 fillable fields that work on your phone, tablet or computer, in plain language.

Both guides, $39 until 22 November. The National MVA Recovery Guide and the MVA Companion Guide for your province or territory, with the discount applied at checkout. Bought separately: $63.99.

Get both guides

Read next

Last verified September 2026. Time change figure from SAAQ data on Quebec; seasonal pedestrian figure from ICBC. Whether a commute is treated as work varies by province and circumstance. This article is general information for people in Canada. It is not medical, legal or insurance advice.
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Two things decide how an injury claim goes.

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You are not the only one

Somebody else has already had this exact week.

We closed comments on our articles, on purpose. A public comment box under a page about claims is a place where people give away details that can be used against them later, and we would rather not build that.

The Square is where that conversation belongs instead. Canadians hurt in an accident or on the job say what happened, read what happened to everyone else, and find out they were never the only one. Post under your name or not at all.

Say what happened, in The Square

Know someone going through this? Send them The Square.

Moderated, with house rules. Please leave out claim numbers, adjuster names and anything else that identifies your file. Something specific to your own claim is better sent to recovery@hurtsquare.ca.