Motor vehicle accidents, including trucking accidents and car accidents, are all too common. In fact, every year there are six million trucking accidents and car accidents combined in the United States alone. For these six million trucking accidents and car accidents, there are more than one million fatalities every single year.
There are many reasons for a trucking accident or a car accident to occur. Some are out of the control of the drivers. For instance, severe weather like icy roads or a severe storm can certainly increase the risk of becoming involved in a severe car accident. But there are other causes of trucking accidents and car accidents as well and in cases where one party is liable, it is in the victim’s best interest to hire a truck accident attorney or a lawyer from a personal injury law firm. Personal injury lawyers can help to get any settlement money that you may be entitled to you, and the vast majority of personal injury cases are able to be kept out of a courtroom. In fact, only around four percent of personal injury suits are seen in front of a judge and not able to be settled pretrial.
Distracted driving is one such cause of a trucking accident or a car accident that may result in a personal injury law suit, as liability can easily be determined. Distracted driving can mean any number of distractions, but most likely occur when the culpable driver is using a cell phone or other hand held electronic device. Distracted driving is in part so dangerous because a major and tragic car accident can happen in just mere seconds. For instance, if a driver looks down for all of five seconds to check something on their phone, perhaps even a map or directions, they cross the length of the football field or more if they are going at least fifty five miles per hour. In that time span, the opportunity for an accident to occur is significant.
And distracted driving is far more widespread than it should be. It even accounts for as much as ten percent of all car accidents in the United States. And at any given moment in the United States, more than half a million active drivers are currently looking down at an electronic device – typically a cell phone – while on the road.
Drunk driving is another dangerous activity that can lead to severe bodily injury or even death in the event of a car accident or a trucking accident. Much like driving distracted, drunk driving is prevalent all through the United States, in all parts of it. In fact, it is estimated that the average drunk driver will drive drunk at least eighty times before they are first arrested, meaning that drunk driving is a more widespread problem than we can even realize. In just one year, one and a half million people are arrested on United State’s roads for driving while intoxicated and drunk driving or other wise driving while under the influence accounts for more than thirty percent of all car accident related deaths.
There are also a number of causes of trucking accidents such as driving while exhausted that affect primarily truck drivers. Many truck drivers are also less cautious than they should be about the state of the roads, and a number of trucking accidents occur because the driver was not driving appropriately for the weather conditions and/or the state of the road itself.
There are many reasons that car accidents and truck accidents occur. Unfortunately, some of these, like weather related causes, may never be able to be fully prevented. However, driving while under the influence and driving while distracted are two causes of motor vehicle accidents that can and should be stopped.