In theory, car accidents should never happen. It sounds unbelievable, considering the fact that tens of thousands of people die in accidents every year and many more get injured, but it’s true. If everyone followed the rules of the road and everything else — cars, road designs, etc — worked perfectly, people would never crash. All of those deaths are preventable.
So, why do they keep happening in such high numbers? Here are a few of the top reasons:
- Human error: People just make mistakes. In a car, that’s deadly.
- Drunk driving: Impaired drivers can’t always control their vehicles.
- Distracted drivers: A driver who is texting isn’t looking at the road.
- Getting lost: People make unexpected turns and drive erratically when they don’t know where they are.
- Weather conditions: Wind, rain, fog, snow and ice can all cause crashes.
- Medical issues: A driver who has a heart attack behind the wheel may lose control of the car completely.
- Mechanical issues: A defective car can make a safe driver crash.
- Road design defects: For instance, a road with a missing stop sign or a broken stop light could cause accidents until it gets fixed.
Naturally, some of these still fall under human error. Drunk driving and distracted driving are simply deadly mistakes. A weather-related crash may happen because the driver is actually going too fast for those weather conditions, and that’s still their fault.
If you get into an accident that another driver causes for any of these reasons, you have to know what rights you have to financial compensation for your medical bills and other costs.
