Leading Causes of Car Accidents According to Studies Shown

Distracted Teen on Cell Phone while Driving Causes Car Accident

Among the leading causes of death each year in the United States, auto accidents cost billions in damages and injuries. Medical expenses, medication, surgeries and treatment for victims of car accidents are part of those costs.

If you or a loved one have been injured in a car accident or an auto accident resulted in death of a loved one, you need a Phoenix car accident lawyer who can help determine how much of these costs you are responsible for and how much another party may be required to pay due to negligence or responsibility in your auto accident. 

Auto Accident Statistics in Arizona

According to car accident statistics that were released by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT), over 116,600 cars, trucks and motorcycles were involved in auto accidents in Arizona during 2015. There are many factors that lead to these auto accidents. But many causes are common from state to state. Quite frequently, car accidents can be prevented.

In 2012, there were over a staggering two million drivers and passengers who sustained injuries. Another 21,000 people suffered fatal injuries. This means that there were about 60 deaths from auto accidents each day that year. Sadly, many of these injuries and deaths could have been prevented.

Legal Actions Following an Auto Accident

Litigation frequently results following car accidents with medical expenses. For such litigation to occur, the individual or parties at fault must be determined. The crash must be examined by an experienced lawyer and associated experts, including involved vehicles, road conditions, weather and other drivers’ behaviors. When someone is found to be at fault in a car accident, a suit may be filed against that person.

For negligence in a case to be determined, burden of proof falls on the plaintiff. The plaintiff must provide evidence of the defendant being negligent, whether that negligence was behavioral, due to automotive defects, or other factors causing the collision. When negligence is proven, that person or entity may be held responsible for injuries and damages.

Common forms of negligence by drivers that result in auto accidents include:

- Driving While Intoxicated - Drunk driving is one conscious choice a driver may make that leads to a car accident. Many deaths and injuries in all fifty states are attributed to drunk driving each year. Research has indicated that there are about 28 fatalities on American roadways each day because of drivers getting behind the wheel after becoming intoxicated or driving while consuming alcohol.

Many drivers are over the legal limit for blood alcohol content when they are involved in an accident. Many others are still under the legal limit but suffered some impairment due to their drinking. Drivers are proven to make mistakes in judgment of traffic and roadway conditions after drinking, just as they easily become distracted, inappropriately speed up or slow down, lose concentration or stop paying attention to driving.

- Aggressive Driving - Aggressive driving is another frequent cause of auto accidents. Being emotional behind the wheel causes drivers to become reckless or dangerous. Aggressive drivers may break a multitude of traffic laws that make it dangerous for others to share the road with them.
Aggressive drivers also cause a great deal of damage to property and buildings. 

Tailgating often leads to rear-end collisions with other vehicles. Flashing of lights at others can cause drivers momentarily distracted or blinded by the lights to swerve out of their lane or off the road entirely.

Aggressive drivers commonly run traffic lights and ignore safety signs and signals. This leads to auto accidents. Aggressive drivers often change lanes at high rates of speed, swerving in and out of traffic, causing other drivers to crash into other vehicles or objects. Refusal to yield right of way is another cause of wrecks. Aggression is also commonly transferred from one driver to another, causing multiple drivers to become challenging or competitive on the same stretch of roadway at once. 

- Excessive Speed - It is commonly understood that speeding causes car accidents. Despite knowing this, drivers still engage in this dangerous behavior. Speeding is one of the most common causes of auto accidents in the U.S. because reaction time is reduced when driving at high speed. Accidents resulting from speeding are also often more severe, involve running others off the road or cause drivers to crash their vehicles into each other. 

- Fatigued Driving - Driving while exhausted can lead to poor judgment and slow reaction time. These wrecks occur most frequently between the hours of 11p.m. and 8a.m. each day, but drivers may cause an accident at any time when they are driving while exhausted. Each year in the U.S., over 100,000 auto accidents result from fatigued driving and attorneys often point to distracted driving as the act of negligence leading to car accidents and resulting litigation. 

- Distracted Driving - Distracted driving, such as driving while texting, emailing, talking on the phone or engaging in other behaviors drawing attention away from the road and vehicle management, is extremely dangerous. It is also a more common behavior today with handheld devices drawing too much driver attention while behind the wheel.

Distracted driving can lead to catastrophic accidents. About 80 percent of today’s vehicle accidents are attributed to distracted driving, including use of cell phones, texting, paying more attention to the radio or multimedia, being distracted by passengers in the vehicle and other causes.

If you have been injured in an auto accident resulting from any of these common causes or the actions of others, you may have a legitimate negligence case. Such a case can lead to compensation for your damages and injuries. To speak with an experienced personal injury lawyer without obligation or cost, call the personal injury law firm of Cantor Crane at 602-254-2701 today.