What Are the Top Causes of Car Accidents?
What causes most car crashes? Do more drivers run red lights, or do drunk and drugged drivers get into more accidents? Is speeding a big problem, or are bad weather and slick roads behind more collisions?
Because so many factors can contribute to car accidents, it can be tough to understand the actual threat the various negligent driving behaviors pose. Below, we’ve broken down some of the top causes of car accidents.
You’ve Got Questions, We’ve Got Answers
Getting to the bottom of this isn’t as simple as you might think. Different states track different information about car crashes (and in different ways), and making sense of it across all fifty states isn’t easy.
An estimated 11 million (or more) crashes happen in the US each year, and many are never even reported, making a comprehensive analysis an enormous challenge. Even the best studies rely on samples and estimates.
There is, however, pretty good data on fatal crashes. We’ve decided to use that as a stand-in for all crashes to see what actions are behind most crashes and which behaviors are the most dangerous.
Pay Attention!
We’ve been hearing about an increase in distracted driving for years. It’s always been a problem, but lately, it has exploded. Estimates vary from a low of about 15 percent to a high of more than 50 percent, but there’s little doubt that a large portion of crashes can be blamed on distracted driving.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that more than 40 percent of crashes include a “recognition error.” That includes all kinds of distractions: eating, drinking, talking to someone else in the car, fiddling with the radio, attending to a child, and many others. One of the best things a driver can do to avoid a crash is focus on driving.
Put the Phone Down and Drive
Of course, the most high-profile driving distraction is the cell phone. Talking on the phone, texting, browsing, or any other phone use behind the wheel is a recipe for disaster.
Talking with a passenger has always been a dangerous distraction, but phone use is catching up fast. The NHTSA recently determined that a minimum of 8 percent of all crashes are due to phone use, and that’s conservative because they only included crashes in which the cause was certain.
Don’t Drink and Drive
Despite decades of safety campaigns, people still do it. And it’s still one of the worst decisions a driver can ever make. Drunk driving is down since the 1980s, but in recent years, alcohol has consistently been a factor in roughly 30 percent of all crashes.
It’s no wonder that health and traffic safety agencies have been urging states to lower the legal blood alcohol limit. Clearing intoxicated drivers from the roads might save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of injuries each year.
Slow Down
It’s an old cliché, but speed really does kill. In 2015, speed was the main factor in 27 percent of all crashes. Even low-speed crashes can cause serious injury or death, but the faster a vehicle is moving, the more likely it is that someone will suffer serious harm in a crash.
That’s especially true for pedestrians—almost all will survive a strike by a car going less than twenty miles per hour, but almost none will live if that car is moving at fifty mph.
Stay Sharp: Get Some Rest
It goes without saying that operating a heavy piece of equipment when you’re tired or sleep-deprived is a bad idea. When you’re driving a car, that’s exactly what you’re doing—at high speed, with very little to prevent you from crashing into things.
The NHTSA estimates that drowsy driving causes 2 to 3 percent of all crashes, which hardly seems an issue next to the huge problems above. But that still adds up to close to 1,000 fatalities each year. AAA has reached a more alarming conclusion, pinning 7 percent of all crashes (and 21 percent of fatal ones) on sleep-deprived drivers.
They’ve gone further and quantified the risk of crashing by those who skip sleep: Drivers who got only four hours of sleep the previous night increased their crash risk by more than eleven times. So the next time you’re thinking about taking only a quick nap before starting a long drive, think again.
The Real Cause? Human Error
If we had started this post by telling you the top five reasons behind most car accidents were “human error, human error, human error, human error, and human error,” you probably wouldn’t have bothered to read the rest. But it’s true: An estimated 94 percent (or more) of all crashes are attributed to preventable human error.
That might mean distracted driving, drunk driving, excessive speed, or some other specific action, but those all boil down to one cause: a driver making an unsafe decision that leads to a crash. Many of those crashes cause property damage. Some also lead to injury. And, as we all know but don’t always like to talk about, some of those unsafe decisions cause crashes that lead to someone’s death.
Rockford Car Accident Lawyer
Until all drivers choose to operate safely at all times, car crashes will continue to happen. If you’ve been harmed in a crash, you understand this all too well. You also understand why it’s important to work with an experienced car accident attorney as you pursue your claim for damages against the driver who injured you.
For years, the team at Mahoney & Mahoney has been helping the victims of car crashes reach favorable resolutions to their cases. Give us a call today at 815-656-4600 or fill out the form below to arrange a free appointment to discuss your case.
