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21 Causes Of Car Accidents That You Should Avoid
In 2013, approximately 54 million people worldwide sustained injuries from vehicular traffic accidents.
This resulted in 1.4 million deaths in 2013, up from 1.1 million deaths in 1990.
About 68,000 of these occurred in children less than five years old.
Almost all developed countries have decreasing death rates, while the majority of third-world or developing nations have increased death rates due to vehicular crash or accidents.
Middle-income countries have the highest rate with 20 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, accounting for 80% of all road fatalities with 52% of all vehicles.
While the death rate from vehicular crashes in Africa is the highest (24.1 per 100,000 inhabitants), the lowest rate is to be found in Europe (10.3 per 100,000 inhabitants).
Vehicular crash or motor vehicle collision (MVC) don’t just occur. They often happen when we neglect some safety measure. Some can be caused by human errors, others are beyond the prevention by motorists.
Autojosh.com highlights 21 Causes Of Car Accidents That You Should Avoid.
This is one of the major causes of car crashes. A distracted driver is a motorist that diverts his or her attention from the road, usually to talk on a cell phone, send a text message or eat food. When driving, a motorist should ensure to maintain focus, and drive defensively.
This is one of the most common causes of car accidents. When drunk, a driver loses the ability to focus and function properly, thus making driving in such condition very dangerous. It is often advised that one should use a designated driver when you go out for drinks.
Speed kills. This is a very popular saying. Indeed, over-speeding is another chief cause of car accidents. Many drivers ignore the speed limit and drive far above the limit. Traveling above the speed limit is an easy way to cause a car accident. This is because the faster you drive, the slower your reaction time will be if you need to prevent an auto accident.
Not driving carefully on the road, can lead to needless road mishap. Reckless driving can change lanes too quickly, tail-gating, over-speeding, not observing traffic lights, etc.
5. Rain
The roads tend to become dangerous, as the weather gets inclement. Abnormal weather conditions like rainfall can cause car accidents, as water creates slippery and dangerous surfaces for cars, trucks, and motorcycles. This can cause automobiles to spin out of control or skid while braking. To avoid a car accident, drive extra careful when it rains.
6. Running Red Lights
Many people are unaware of the grave dangers of running the red light of a traffic light. Drivers that run red lights, run the risk of causing needless death because they often cause side-impact collisions at high speeds. To avoid a car accident, look both ways for oncoming cars as you approach a green light.
7. Harassment by touts/Agberos
This typically affects commercial motorists in Nigeria. Touts (agberos) or agents of the road transport unions are notorious for chasing after drivers who try to evade paying their levies and dues. In trying to escape paying the levies or dues, the motorist can ram into an impedance such as other vehicles or pedestrians.
8. Running Stop Signs
It is dangerous to ignore Stop signs at traffic intersections. Doing this can lead to, serious car accidents. Each year, thousands of car accidents occur because one driver ran a stop sign. You should always look both ways when proceeding through a stop sign.
9. Teenage Drivers
Youthfulness and carefulness on the roads are a very rare combination. Indeed, young drivers aren’t often known for their carefulness. Sadly, when young drivers hit the roads they don’t always know what to do and that lack of experience ends up causing car accidents.
10. Night Driving
Driving at night is dangerous for many reasons. It can impair your vision. When you cannot see what is ahead of you, you don’t know what to anticipate as you drive towards it. When driving at night, all your senses need to be at full alert.
11. Making improper Turns
Ignoring stoplights, turn signals, and lanes designated for moving either right or left could be hazardous. Doing all these could put the driver or other motorists at huge risk, as an accident could occur. To prevent a car accident, always look for signs and obey the proper right-of-way before you make a turn.
12. Wrong-Way Driving
Everyone has lapses in judgment, but when behind the wheel of a car, those clouded instincts can be deadly. You can turn down a street thinking it is a normal right turn, when in actuality, it is a one-way street in the opposite direction. When you go the wrong way, everyone is in danger
13. Tailgating
Tail-gating is driving too close to the car ahead of you. It is dangerous to do this because it can make you not have enough time to react if the car ahead suddenly applies the brake. Many fatal car accidents have occurred when a motorist dangerously tailgated another driver at high speeds. You can prevent these sort of car accidents by giving the car in front of you a one-car-length distance..
14. Road Rage
Driving when you are extremely angry is dangerous. It is common to have reasons to be angry at other motorists, but some drivers let their rage overcome them. By tailgating another driver in anger or speeding past another driver only to pull in front of them and brake, these road “ragers” may cause needless car accidents.
15. Potholes
Potholes can be hazardous to motorists. Drivers run the risk of losing control of their car or blowing out a tyre when they drive over these potholes. If you see a pothole in your car’s path, you can avoid a car accident by making sure that your tyres do not drive into it.
16. Tyre Blowouts
Tyre blowouts can cause you to lose control of your vehicle, and they are especially dangerous for bigger automobiles like semi-trucks. When encountering a tyre blowout, try to maintain control of your vehicle and pull over safely and you will likely avoid a serious car accident.
17. Dangerous Curves or bends
Sharp curves on roads can make motorist lose control of their cars. These dangerous bends can lead to accidents and loss of lives. So when you approach these signs, be cautious, slow down, to avoid a car accident.
18. Animal Crossings
Animals crossing the road can lead to a sudden halt of a car. If there is another car coming behind that car, it might lead to a collision. Animals will wade out into the road, and it is up to you to make sure that you don’t get into a car accident with them.
19. Street Racing
Street racing is a growing culture. No thanks to the Fast and the Furious movie franchise. This can lead to very fatal car accidents. Due to the high speeds of competing cars during a street race, any resulting car collision will be much more dangerous and unlikely to yield any survivors.
20. Faulty or Defective cars
Driving a faulty car or one with some defect is dangerous and can lead to an accident.
When a car stops suddenly due to a fault, it could lead to some risk. It could also get risky if you need to get over to another lane (i.e. exit from the expressway, get in the correct lane to make a turn, etc.).
21. Driving fatigue or Sleepiness
Tiredness or sleepiness is a common cause of road accidents. Most of the car accidents caused by drowsy driving occur at night or driving long distances. If you find yourself wanting to fall asleep at the wheel, pull over when it is safe and try to take a quick 30-minute power nap.
