By: Russell Keener  —  September 6, 2011
 

Car acci­dents are not an event we ever plan for in our lives. We do our best to avoid them, but did you know that these acci­dents result in tens of thou­sands of seri­ous injuries and fatal­i­ties every year in the United States? As a mat­ter of fact, approx­i­mately 58,000 peo­ple die in these acci­dents annu­ally. Let’s take a look at which age groups cause more acci­dents, and what are the top 10 causes of these some­times cat­a­strophic accidents.

If you guessed that younger and older dri­vers are respon­si­ble for the major­ity of acci­dents, you are correct!

Those who cause the most car acci­dents are teenagers and those in their early 20s along with those who are elderly (75 and older). And in real­ity these sta­tis­tics are easy to under­stand. Teens often feel they are invin­ci­ble; young and vibrant, and they THINK they will never be involved in a bad acci­dent. With this men­tal­ity, they take to the road, often too fast, tex­ting, talk­ing on the phone while dri­ving and basi­cally not pay­ing atten­tion to their sur­round­ings. Before they know it, they are that young dri­ver sta­tis­tic. For those who are 75 and older, they many times face the issues of not see­ing clearly or being hin­dered in their dri­ving because they may have slower reflexes. It’s not say that other aged dri­vers can’t have wrecks, but the facts show these two groups are involved in the most car acci­dents each year.

So what exactly do motorists do that increase their risk of car acci­dents?

1. Dri­ving while dis­tracted. Dis­trac­tions are any activ­i­ties that take the driver’s atten­tion away from his/her pri­mary focus — dri­ving. This may include text mes­sag­ing, talk­ing on a cell phone, eat­ing or sim­ply being too engaged in a con­ver­sa­tion with passengers.

2. Speed­ing. Dri­vers often drive at speeds much higher than those posted; the faster you drive, the less likely you will be able to react in time when it becomes nec­es­sary to pre-vent a crash.

3. Dri­ving under the influ­ence. Those who drink do not have con­trol of their fac­ul­ties. Reac­tion time slows, focus becomes blurred and judg­ment is impaired. If you are going to drink and must go from one loca­tion to another, please have a des­ig­nated driver.

4. Dri­ving reck­lessly. Reck­less dri­ving includes any type of dri­ving that is not done in a care­ful man­ner. Speed­ing, tail­gat­ing or chang­ing lanes repeat­edly. It is impor­tant to keep your atten­tion on your dri­ving and those around you.

5. Wet, slip­pery roads. When it rains, there are far more acci­dents than when the weather is fair. Road­ways become slick, your abil­ity to see is dimin­ished. Drive care­fully and never exceed the speed limit when it is rain­ing or sleeting.

6. Run­ning stop lights. A red light means STOP — it does not mean skid through on pave­ment. When a light is yel­low, it means cau­tion as you pro­ceed through. By ignor­ing red lights, you put your­self and oth­ers at risk when those who have a green light pro­ceed through the intersection.

7. Ignor­ing stop signs. Come to a com­plete stop and look both ways TWICE. Run­ning a stop sign increases the like­li­hood that you will be struck from the side or even become involved in a rollover accident.

8. Teen dri­vers. We’ve already men­tioned this above, but it is worth repeat­ing. Lack of expe­ri­ence and a feel­ing of invin­ci­bil­ity lead to many seri­ous injuries and fatalities.

9. Dri­ving at night. It’s harder for any­one to see after dark than dur­ing day­light hours. In fact, the chances of being involved in a car acci­dent dou­bles at night. Antic­i­pate what is com­ing and pay par­tic­u­lar atten­tion to other motorists and roads around you.

10. Defects in design. Cloth­ing, appli­ances, toys and other prod­ucts often have defects, and cars are no dif­fer­ent. Auto­mo­biles are con­structed of hun­dreds of parts, and defects can result in acci­dents. Some SUVs are prone to rollover acci­dents due to top-heaviness; other acci­dents have resulted due to defects as well.

By obey­ing the rules of the road and pay­ing close atten­tion, many car acci­dents could be avoided. Please remem­ber to never drink and get behind the wheel or drive dis­tracted; doing so could cost you and oth­ers more than you can afford to pay when some­one loses their life.