Hopefully you’re sitting down, because what you’re going to read next might shock you. Believe it or not, someone in the United States dies in a car accident once every 15 minutes. This means that there will be a total of 94 fatal car accidents today, and 3,287 bad car accidents a year.
As shocking as those car accidents statistics are, you may be more surprised by what the most common causes of car accidents are.
Distracted Driving.
Distracted driving is actually the most common cause of bad car accidents, not drunk driving. Eating, playing with the car’s stereo, putting makeup on and more are all common ways people get distracted and end up in bad car accidents.
The most dangerous way that people are getting distracted nowadays, though, is texting. To make matters worse, one in three drivers do it. It might not seem like such a bad thing, but when you consider the fact that the minimum amount of time it takes a driver to send a text is five seconds, you begin to see the problem. It doesn’t sound like much, but that’s how long it takes to travel across span of a football field if traveling for 55 mph. It’s why drivers who’re texting are 23 times more likely to get into bad car accidents.
Drunk Driving.
Though it’s not the biggest reason that people get into bad car accidents, drunk driving is still responsible for one third of all fatal auto accidents each year. Alcohol seriously impairs a person’s ability to respond. Even if the driver is only buzzed, they still won’t be able to respond as quickly as they need to.
Speeding.
According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, speeding one of the single most prevalent causes of bad car accidents today, contributing to about one third of all accidents in the United States. Similar to drunk driving, speeding reduces a person’s ability to react, because it reduces the amount of time they’ll have.
If there’s one thing to take away from all of this, it’s that driving requires your full attention because you need to be able to react to changing circumstances at a moment’s notice. If you have any questions about how to avoid getting into bad car accidents, feel free to ask in the comments. More on this topic.