The latest statistics show that there are in the region of six million car crashes on America’s roads each and every year. Unfortunately this results in around 40,000 deaths, which if we knew more about why car accidents happen could be dramatically reduced.
Fortunately, this has just been investigated by the University of Michigan whereby almost 7,000 individual car crashes have been looked at and analyzed in order to see what exactly happened and how the accident happened in the first place.
From this analysis, there were a number of different reasons that were identified as to why car accidents happen. The main ones that were identified are listed below for your benefit so that you can learn about these and thus know how to avoid them.
Not Paying Sufficient Attention at Rolling Right Turns
When a light is red at a rolling right turn, there are many different things that you need to be on the lookout for, including vehicles coming along the road from the left and pedestrians/bicyclists coming from the right. It is no surprise then that many accidents occur in these situations – especially when most drivers do not come to a complete stop and instead keep rolling into these junctions, thinking that they can look out for hazards whilst still on the move. Six percent of all deaths of pedestrian deaths occur at these types of junctions and the number is actually rising. Of these deaths, unfortunately, 21 percent of them happen to kids.
Falling Asleep Whilst at the Wheel
Based on the latest research, it is believed that some 7 percent of all car accidents in America are as a result of the driver falling to sleep whilst at the wheel. Of all of the fatal crashes that occur, 21 percent of them happen because of sleepy or tired drivers. Given the modern pressures of life, with people working long hours and also having active social lives, it is no surprise that around 37 percent of all Americans have admitted to falling to sleep when driving. It is not the case that people actively get behind the wheel feeling so tired that they are ready to fall asleep straight away, but that they are actually very bad judges of how tired they are
Loss of Control Over the Vehicle
Whilst most drivers think that it would be difficult to lose control of their vehicle, this is actually responsible for around 11 percent of all car accidents on our roads. A lot of the time this comes as a result of driving at speeds that are either too fast for the road conditions, too fast for the ability of the driver, or a combination of the two. Driving overly aggressively is another reason as to why some drivers lose control of their vehicle and have an accident.
Other common types of car accidents are driving into the blind, driving too close to the vehicle in front, or generally being distracted whilst driving.
It’s always good to always make sure you are covered by insurance in case you are ever in an accident. Shop around. You can get cheap car insurance at My Choice for instance.
Feature photo by Matt Chesin
