You can’t eliminate the risk of accidents, but you can reduce it. And there is good reason for wanting to do so. According to the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration, someone dies every 12 minutes in a traffic accident. Someone suffers an injury every 10 seconds, and every five seconds another traffic accident takes place. Interestingly, different driving safety experts have slightly different takes on how to avoid traffic accidents, each based on an editorial perspective. Nonetheless, the different viewpoints seem equally valid. For example, EHS Today advises:
- Pull into traffic slowly, paying attention to other drivers’ blind spots and objects that might obstruct other drivers’ vision, including highway road signs.
- Look both ways at least twice before you go when turning right at intersections.
- At traffic signals, beware of red light runners. Make sure no one is running the red or pushing through the last milliseconds of a yellow light before you proceed into the intersection.
- Take care when passing commercial trucks, which have large blind spots on their right-hand sides and behind them.
- Always keep at least one hand on the steering wheel, and try to avoid distractions, including changing radio stations, tapes, or CDs; using a cell phone; eating; or taking both hands off the wheel.
- Watch for children, pedestrians, and animals.
- Maintain your vehicle, including the engine and safety equipment, such as brakes and brake lights, and position lights and headlights. Keep your tires properly inflated.
- Be vigilant when backing up. Don’t rely on mirrors—turn and look to make sure you hit nobody or nothing.
- Maintain a safe distance from the vehicle in front of you.
- Behave courteously to other drivers and don’t do anything that might spark road rage in another driver.
Obviously, nothing can prevent all accidents, but you can reduce your risk of traffic accidents, which, really, is all you can do. Driving requires constant attention and vigilance. Maintaining that attitude might offer the best step you can take to avoid traffic accidents. Whether you merge into traffic on I-45 or drive 20 miles per hour on Main Street, vigilance is your best defense. Automobile accidents clearly remain a serious risk. While federal statistics deal primarily with fatalities, far more injuries obviously take place in traffic accidents than fatalities. If an automobile accident injures you, explore your rights to compensation. When you suffer an injury in an accident, for most people the first thought is not to sue someone. The focus stays on medical treatment and recovery, maybe getting back to work, and other practical, immediate concerns. However, practical concerns can and should include whether your injuries entitle you to compensation. While you might consider simply negotiating with the responsible party’s insurance company yourself, that insurance company might not want to play ball and admit responsibility. The People’s Law Library of Maryland contends that personal injury accidents do not lend themselves to self-representation. The complex circumstances surrounding personal injuries from accidents tend to require investigative and legal experiences most people simply don’t possess. Different aspects of the law can apply to the many different types of personal injury cases. Different types of accidents involve different standards and determinations of negligence. Automobile negligence, products liability, premises liability, medical malpractice, and other situations that result in personal injuries may involve different standards of what constitutes negligence. Proving a case may require knowledge of medicine, building codes, physics, engineering, or other fields of expertise. An attorney experienced in a particular type of accidental injury will bring knowledge of the kind of proof and expert testimony needed to win the case, and know how to provide such proof.
