Car accidents can happen to anyone. They put you in a dangerous and vulnerable position. Everyone fears getting into an accident on the road, but that doesn’t stop them from occurring. According to statistics, over 30,000 people are killed in crashes each year in the United States. In Georgia, car accidents are the leading killers of children, teens, and young adults.
While getting into an accident isn’t always your fault, there are some safety tips you can follow to try and lessen your chances of getting onto a major car accident. If more people followed these suggestions, there would be fewer collisions on the road each year.
Taking simple actions can save lives, money, and stop injuries from occurring. Many accidents are avoidable if people listen to safety guidelines for driving. Here are 5 tips to help you avoid a major car accident.
1) Avoid Distracted Driving
With cell phones, iPads, and fancy Bluetooth consoles in our cars, it’s easy to get distracted while driving. While a lot of people make an occasional phone call or munch on a snack while driving, it can actually be extremely dangerous.
Some frequent distracted driving habits to avoid include:
- Texting
- Phone calls
- Adjusting the radio
- Eating
- Smoking
Texting while driving tends to be the worst, and it causes 1.6 million crashes a year, and it’s actually six times more likely to cause an accident than driving while drunk. Being on your cellphone while operating a vehicle poses a major risk to both you and other drivers. The text from your friend isn’t nearly as important as the lives of people on the road.
Here are some tips to help you avoid using your cellphone while driving:
- Turn off your phone when you get into your car
- Don’t send or read texts while driving
- Let someone else drive if you need to make calls or send emails
- Allow the passenger to use your phone on your behalf
- Turn your cell on “silent” while driving
Avoid giving into these common distractions, focus on the road, and reduce your risk of getting into an accident.
2) Don’t Drive Under The Influence
Despite all of the information out there warning about drunk driving, people still do it every day. Getting behind the wheel after a couple of drinks is dangerous and puts lives at risk. Alcohol impairs your judgment and affects your reaction time.
Drunk driving claims over 10,000 lives per year. That’s 30 people every day. These deaths are avoidable if people would simply take an Uber or Lyft when they’ve been drinking instead of getting behind the wheel.
By choosing to get a ride home instead of driving after drinking, you are less likely to end up in a major car accident.
3) Avoid Speeding to suffer a car accident
When you’re in a hurry, it’s easy to drive over the speed limit, but it could cause a major accident or even death. Speed limits are posted for a reason. When you choose to drive over them, you’re choosing to drive at a speed the road and traffic pattern wasn’t built to handle.
For more than two decades, speeding has been involved in approximately one-third of all motor vehicle fatalities. Slowing down can make a major difference in this statistic. Rushing to get where you’re going endangers lives.
Not only can speeding cause collisions, but it can also cause a ticket, which can be quite expensive to pay for. There are plenty of reasons not to drive so fast. Slowing down could spare your bank account and spare lives.
4) Don’t Tailgate
Even if you get impatient with a slow driver, never follow them too closely. Not only is tailgating annoying, it is also incredibly dangerous and can end in a rear-end collision. You should always keep an appropriate distance between your car and the one in front of you in order to avoid major car accidents.
A good distance to keep is to maintain a car length between you and the car in front of you for every 10 miles of the speed limit. For example, if the speed limit is 40 mph, stay 4 car lengths back from the vehicle ahead of you.
If you maintain a safe distance from other vehicles, your chances of rear-ending them are significantly lower.
5) Never Predict The Actions of Others and You Will Avoid a Car Accident
In a perfect world, we could trust that other people will do the right thing or know what they’re doing. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case. You can control how you drive, but you cannot control how other people do.
You shouldn’t assume that anyone is going to stop, make the right turn, or yield properly. In order to drive safely, you should act like other people aren’t going to. While you can’t entirely avoid the mistakes of others, you can be cautious and look both ways before going through a green light.
If you behave like other drivers will make the wrong choice, you are more likely to avoid a car accident.
The Nick Schnyder Law Firm Is Here To Help
While it’s great to imagine we will never get into an accident, that isn’t how the world works. Even if you follow all of these guidelines, you could still be involved in a major car accident. If that happens, there’s no need to panic. The Nick Schnyder Law Firm will get you through it!
Car accidents are our firm’s specialty. We are ready to fight for you after an accident. If you are hurt or injured in a car wreck, the team at the Nick Schnyder Law Firm is here to help and make sure that you get maximum compensation for your injury.
During your free consultation, we will discuss the details of your case and explain the options available to you. Fighting for the rights of our clients is a major priority. We will stand with you from start to finish until you receive the compensation and medical care you need.
Are you ready to get started with your case? Contact us today for your free consultation.
