Most accidents are caused by driver error. All drivers make mistakes. Most of them are harmless, but some are deadly. Given the thousands of decisions a driver makes while on the road, consciously and subconsciously, which decisions do we need to pay the most attention to so we can prevent an accident?
Compared to 2014, there was an 8% increase in crash fatalities during 2015, the largest increase in fifty years. That figure increased again in 2016, when more than 40,000 people died in vehicle accidents, according to an article in Slate by Steve Casner. If technology and, hopefully, our ability to learn, improves over time, why are more people getting killed in traffic accidents?
Casner states that based on his research he has identified six of the most common crash situations. They aren’t caused because drivers aren’t smart, but are due to misunderstandings of what may happen when vehicles, roads and drivers all come together.
As you approach a red light or stop sign, planning to turn right, you slow but don’t stop. As your vehicle rolls forward, you look over your left shoulder to see if there are oncoming vehicles. There are none, or they’re far enough away not to be a problem, so you turn your head to the right and there’s a pedestrian or a bicyclist in front of you.
We’re afraid something might hit us from the left while we slowly drive in the opposite direction. We’re over-confident in our abilities and ignore the law requiring us to stop at red lights and stop signs, whether we’re turning right or not.
The rolling-right now causes 6% of all pedestrian fatalities, and 21% percent of these deaths happen to children. Even if a vehicle moves slowly, children have a four times greater chance of dying than adults. The solution is to stop at the red light or stop sign, not roll, and look both ways before proceeding.
It’s estimated that about 7% of all vehicle collisions and 21% of fatal accidents involve drowsy drivers. Recent surveys estimate that 37% of drivers have fallen asleep while driving, at least once -- 11% of them in the past year and 4% in the past month. The problem is that we overestimate how much sleep we get and underestimate how much we need. We can fall into “miocrosleep” behind the wheel and nod off for split seconds without realizing it. If you’re tired, avoid driving if at all possible.
Losing control of a vehicle makes up 11% of all accidents. You may think you’re too good a driver for that to happen, but we overestimate our skills. A study showed that half of drivers rank themselves in the top 20% in driver safety and skills. Aggressive driving and taking a sharp curve too fast cause about 5% of all accidents, with another 2% occurring because drivers don’t slow down when water covers the road.
The rest of these accidents happen because another driver makes a mistake and we’re in an unexpected situation requiring an emergency response we’re unable to handle. The solution is to drive conservatively and defensively.
About 12% of all crashes happen when a driver's vision is partially or totally blocked, they make assumptions of what’s coming their way, and they’re wrong. Just because we can’t see something doesn’t mean it’s not there. The solution is not to make turns or take other actions unless you can clearly see what’s going on.
Rear-end accidents account for 23% to 30% of all collisions. When we follow too closely, we falsely assume the other driver won’t suddenly hit the brakes. We overestimate our ability to slow down in time and underestimate how easy it is to strike another vehicle that we’re closely following. The answer is not to tailgate and to leave a safe amount of space behind the next vehicle. Tailgating is dangerous and won’t get us where we want to go any sooner.
About a third of all crashes happen when we leave our lane or the road entirely. We’re fatigued, asleep, distracted, intoxicated, bored or trying to speed ahead, weaving from lane to lane. We need to slow down, stay focused, stay in our lane and understand that the more we switch lanes, the greater the risk of an accident.
If all drivers took these simple steps, tens of thousands of lives could be saved. We all need to take responsibility for our driving and avoid taking actions that threaten ourselves and others. When it comes to dangerous driving, we have met the enemy ... and he is us.
