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Traffic Deaths Increase after 4:20 P.M. on 4/20

Tomorrow is April 20th—4/20. It's sometimes called a “High Holiday”. Because for a lot of people, 4/20 is Marijuana Day. And for them it's kind of a tradition to start lighting¹ up at 4:20 P.M. on 4/20. Which led a couple of researchers in Canada to wonder if there was any evidence for an increase in traffic deaths related to the occasion.

明天是4月20日。这有时被称为“高假期”。因为对很多人来说，4/20是大麻日。对他们来说，在下午4点20分开始是一种传统。 这导致加拿大的一些研究人员怀疑，是否有任何证据表明与此相关的交通死亡人数增加。

They got access to the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality² Analysis Reporting System. Which tracks all public road accidents in which at least one person died. And they looked at the numbers on 4/20 from 4:20 P.M. through midnight. From 1992 through 2016. They also examined traffic deaths related to accidents on the day one week earlier and the day one week later during the same hours.

他们可以访问美国国家公路交通安全管理局的死亡分析报告系统。它跟踪所有至少有一人死亡的公共交通事故。他们从4点20分看了数字。直到午夜。从1992年到2016年，他们还检查了一周前一天和一周后在同一时间内，发生的与交通事故有关的交通事故死亡人数。

The result: a 12 percent increase in fatalities³ related to traffic accidents on 4/20 after 4:20 P.M. compared with the control dates. And for drivers 20 and under the figure was much higher, more than a 30 percent increase in some states. The research is in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

结果是：在下午4:20之后，与对照日期相比，交通事故死亡人数增加了12%。而对于司机来讲，这个数字要高得多，在一些州增加了30%以上。该研究结果发表在JAMA内科杂志上。

Of course, this study does not prove that impaired⁴ driving caused by marijuana consumption was the cause of the higher death rate. For example, could be that drivers crashed while simply trying to light up.

当然，这项研究并不能证明，大麻消耗造成的驾驶障碍，是死亡率较高的原因。例如，可能是司机在试图点大麻时导致事故。

Scientific American has long supported making it easier for researchers to study marijuana's medicinal effects as well as decriminalization in general. But we're still against driving while intoxicated—so if you're gonna be toking, keep those pistons⁵ from stroking. The pistons in the engine. Of the car. Just don't drive.

科学美国人长期以来一直支持，让研究人员更容易研究大麻的药用效果，以及一般的非犯罪化。但是当我们陶醉于其中时，我们仍然反对驾驶——所以如果你要上车，请不要让发动机中的活塞出现问题。起码不要开车时出现问题。