Unfortunately, car accidents are incredibly common, and the biggest cause of these accidents is some form of unsafe driving. If you drive unsafely, you are not only risking your own life, but also the lives of everyone around you, which is why it’s absolutely imperative to follow traffic laws at all times. Unfortunately, even if you are the most sensible driver on the planet, it doesn’t mean that those around you are too. Here are the most common causes of car accidents, and the steps that you can take to prevent them.
- Drink Driving
Unfortunately, driving drunk is one of the most common, and most deadly, causes of car accidents. When you’ve had a drink, your reactions are slower, so you can’t react to danger as you would do when you’re sober, which is incredibly dangerous. To avoid being the cause of a car accident, take a taxi home instead. You won’t just be saving your own life, but you could be saving someone else’s too. If you have been injured in a car accident due to a drunk driver, you are well within your right to visit a car injury lawyer and make a claim.
- Distracted Driver
You are also easily distracted when you’re drunk, which is another huge cause of car accidents. In fact, it’s believed that distracted driving is the largest cause of car accidents because this distraction comes in many forms, such as applying makeup, texting, answering phone calls, eating, or even just talking to your passengers. To prevent a car accident, ensure you do none of these things while driving and focus solely on the road.
- Heavy Rain
Not all car accidents are solely the fault of a driver. When you drive in heavy rain, not only is the ground slick, but you also have incredibly low visibility, which is a treacherous combination. If at all possible, you should always avoid driving in such weather conditions. If you have to drive when it’s raining heavily, you need to understand when the weather and roads are too dangerous, and when is time to pull over until the rain has slowed.
- Driving At Night
Like when driving in heavy rain, when you drive at night you have lower visibility, which means that you may not be able to see hazards until it’s too late. Take care when driving at night, and ensure that you always have your full lights on if you’re driving down a road that isn’t lit up.
- Speeding
Speed limits are there for a reason, but some people don’t seem to understand that, which is why there are so many car accidents caused by speeding every year. Even if you are running late, you should always stick to the speed limits and drive sensibly, otherwise, you could risk the lives of you and your fellow drivers.
- Potholes
There is no denying the fact that potholes are annoying, and could potentially cause a lot of damage to your care. Therefore, it’s understandable that most people try to avoid driving over a pothole wherever possible but driving around them. However, this doesn’t justify swerving into another lane to avoid the pothole when cars are coming. This could cause an oncoming car to brake rapidly, which could cause them to collide with the car behind them, or worse. Instead of swerving quickly, slow down and wait for the cars to pass before driving around.
- Running Red Lights
Like with speeding, some people don’t seem to understand that it is the law to stop at a red light and that that law is there for a reason. Red always means stop, and stop always means stop, not just carry on if you deem it to be safe enough. It doesn’t matter if you are in a rush or you don’t see any cars coming and think it’s safe to drive on, you should always stop at a red light. The only exception is if a police officer is there and physically tells you to keep moving.
Car accidents are scary and potentially deadly, so you should always try to prevent them if possible. Take steps to ensure that you become a safer driver. Your first step can be keeping your phone in your glove box while you are driving, and not checking it unless you have safely pulled over. Unfortunately, as much as you do, you can’t always prevent car accidents, because you can’t control the actions of others, you just need to make sure that you know what to do if you ever are involved in a car accident.
