Preventing Automobile Accidents
Automobile accident are the number one cause of deaths among toddlers, kids, teens & young adults ages 1 through 29.
You Can Saves Lives
Contrary to some perceptions, aggressive, impaired driving or distracted driving, not road conditions, or mechanical failure are the number one causes for most automobile accidents involving serious injuries, or deaths in the United States.
Car accidents are the number one cause of deaths among children.
Learn to Drive Defensively
According to the National Safety Council (NSC), an estimated 77% of accidents are due to driver error. Defensive driver training greatly reduces your risk of being involved in a preventable crash.
10 Tips to Prevent Car Accidents
- Avoid drinking and driving.
- Minimize distractions such as reading newspapers or talking on the cell phone when driving.
- Properly maintain vehicles. Tune up cars according to maintenance schedule, and especially take note monthly of tire condition.
- Do not encourage aggressive drivers. Let other aggressive driving behavior roll off your back, or call the police. Losing your temper could worsen the situation.
- Leave a safe distance between your cars and others. For every 10 miles per hour of speed, leave at least one car length space between your vehicle and the vehicle ahead.
- Maintain a constant speed. Don’t continually slow down or speed up.
- Adjust mirrors properly and check the side and rear-view mirrors every 15 seconds.
- Take defensive driving classes to improve your ability to drive and be better prepared for the unpredictable behavior of other motorists.
- Proceed with great caution through intersections. Intersections are the center of most accidents. When entering an intersection, look left, then right, then left again to ensure the area is clear.
- Be sufficiently aware of road conditions and be more visible. Keep your lights on at dusk and dawn and during rain, as is the law in most states. Understand basic vehicle dynamics, such as knowing how to recover from a skid.
Impaired Driving: Get the Facts
According to the US Centers for Disease Control, “Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts to one death every 48 minutes.1 The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $51 billion.”
Thankfully, there are effective measures that can help prevent injuries and deaths from alcohol-impaired driving.
How big is the problem?
- In 2009, 10,839 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (32%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States.
- Of the 1,314 traffic deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2009, 181 (14%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver.
- Of the 181 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2009, about half (92) were riding in the vehicle with the with the alcohol-impaired driver.
- In 2009, over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. That’s less than one percent of the 147 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year.
- Drugs other than alcohol (e.g., marijuana and cocaine) are involved in about 18% of motor vehicle driver deaths. These other drugs are often used in combination with alcohol.
If you are a innocent victim or a loved one of a victim seriously injured at a workplace, innocently involved in any type of catastrophic passenger vehicle accident, or a victim, or the family of extreme medical malpractice please call the Accident Victims Center immediately. 866-714-6466