Unfortunately, motor vehicle accidents, including car accidents and truck accidents, are far from uncommon. In fact, nearly 40,000 people die in car accidents in one year alone in the United States, and in 2015 the country had over 30,000 motor vehicle accidents considered to be fatal. There are a number of causes of these car accidents and truck accidents, and some of them are no fault of the drivers. Take inclement weather for instance, especially heavy snows and iced over roads. It is far more likely that you’ll get into an accident during poor weather than during good weather and sometimes, these accidents are unavoidable, even for the most careful and patient of drivers. But many accidents can be avoided, and personal injury law firms can help the victims of such accidents to get the compensation that they deserve. Fortunately, the vast majority – more than 95% – of these personal injury cases are able to settled pretrial, meaning that agreement is reached before the case ever is seen in front of a judge or in a courtroom.
There are many causes for personal injury attorneys to be necessary, many directly involving truck accidents or car accidents. One major cause is distracted driving. Distracted driving can entail a number of things, but it usually involves the use of an electronic device. More often than not, this device is a cell phone, and the cause of the distraction is a text message. But talking on a cell phone or even using it for navigational purposes can also easily be considered distracted – and therefore dangerous – driving. And distracted driving is more common than we may want to believe. If you look down at your cell phone for even just five seconds while going around 55 miles per hour, you will cover the length of a football field before you look at the road again. Unfortunately, many accidents could occur within that short span of time. It is not all bleak news, however. Distracted driving rates, though still too high, are gradually falling. Since 2015, the rate of distracted drivers has dropped from 3.5% to 3.3%. Though this is a small change, it shows that the attitude towards distracted driving in the United States is slowly but surely changing.
Drugs and alcohol intoxication is another major cause of truck accidents and car accidents and represents a major problem in the United States. Drug and alcohol intoxication is a major culprit in nearly 20% of all truck accidents and car accidents, and more than one million drivers were arrested in 2015 alone for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Though some car accidents and truck accidents can’t be avoided (for example, in cases of inclement weather or mechanical problems with the car or truck), many of these motor vehicle accidents are largely preventable. As distracted driving and driving under the influence have cost millions of lives, if not more, over the years, a crackdown on both of these could lead to safer roads for all.
