Articles Posted in Car Accidents

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Many drivers do not fully understand what huge impact car accidents have on the cost of their insurance. It is easy to understand why your own wrecks increase your rates, but harder to comprehend the correlation of the nation’s crash rate and insurance costs. What’s more, there are specific types of car accidents that happen more often than others and make the biggest impact on car insurance costs. Not only do your own accidents influence your car insurance rates, but those in the community around you, especially if they are one of these five specific types.

Five Most Common Types of Car Accidents in the United States

While the specific circumstances will vary, there are five different types of accidents that happen repeatedly in the United States. A large majority of these accidents are minor and end up in nothing more than a few dents and bruises. Unfortunately, a smaller percentage end tragically in a death or with serious and life-altering injury. Any accident can be deadly. The five most common types of car accidents are:

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Teen drivers are already at a higher risk of car accident than other age groups of drivers, but those with ADHD, or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, are 36% more likely than other adolescent drivers to have an accident. This information comes from a recent study from JAMA Pediatrics, although latter studies have shown even higher percentages. Some stating teens with ADHD are as much as four times more likely than their peers to wreck.

The new study was able to use larger samples of teens and rely on more efficient reporting styles than older studies, making it more dependable. Information was compiled using 18,500 electronic health records for minors from six New Jersey primary care facilities. Almost 2500 had ADHD. Although this risk is substantial, the study shows it is manageable.

A chronic condition, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, manifests itself with symptoms of hyperactivity and impulse control issues. They have substantial complications sustaining concentration and focus. These symptoms while driving can impair the driver in much the same way as if they were intoxicated. Long-distance driving is particularly risky for people with ADHD because they become easily distracted. Distracted driving is illegal and consists of anything that takes the drivers attention from the task of driving. Examples include texting, talking on the phone, tuning the radio and talking with passengers. An interesting fact that came out of the study is that most teens with ADHD do not get their licenses until they are older.

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Even the smallest car accident can send your life into a tailspin. More serious accidents can affect you for a lifetime. Medical expenses due to injuries related to the accident, damage repair, loss of work… all of these things can alter your life for years if not an entire lifetime. Add to that, the stress and confusion of dealing with other drivers, insurance companies and police. Such a compendium of issues at one time is a tremendous mental strain on an individual. When all this occurs, victims often find themselves financially strapped with many unexpected bills threatening to destroy their lives. Seeking adequate compensation for injury and loss, the thought of suing for the car accident comes into existence. Several factors determine the likelihood of a successful lawsuit after a car accident.

Most often, people choose to sue after a car accident when going through the insurance process does not provide enough money to cover all the losses received as a result of the car accident.  It is especially pertinent if the other driver has no insurance and you may be forced to fit the entire bill. Unfortunately, it is a common occurrence today. Insurance companies are in the business of saving themselves money and strive to pay accident victims as little as possible. There are times, however, when an insurance company will want to avoid the hassle of trial and make a settlement offer that is satisfactory. Many car insurance claims end in a settlement, sometimes however, the victim doesn’t realize until later that the settlement was inadequate.

Settlements

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Have you ever driven past an accident on the side of a highway and thought, “What in the world happened?” Sometimes it’s not easy to actually tell what happened at the scene of an accident, especially when you only have a few seconds to assess the scene before you drive right by.

car crashNow you may not have to wonder about these accidents any longer. The Auto Insurance Center, an information and news site dedicated to keeping up with the latest in car insurance news, began researching the answer to that very question. The center combed through records in the United States from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatal Accident Reporting System, which has been keeping records on every serious and fatal car crash in the United States from 2009 to 2013.

The data itself showcased the number of pedestrian, driver, and passenger deaths that resulted from those accidents. When the center finished compiling their information, that made a color-coded map to show which fatal accident was the most common in each state. The map included nine colors:

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Picture this: you are driving through your town late on a Saturday night. Suddenly, something comes out into the road. It’s a person. You try to swerve, but it’s too late. You know you have made contact.

Auto-Accidents-With-Pedestrians-InvolvedThat is almost exactly what happened on January 17, 2015. A 73-year-old woman was walking in her town of Gatesville, Texas. When she tried to cross the street, a silver car driven by a 17-year-old boy hit her. When the police, EMS and fire department arrived, they pronounced her dead at the scene.

Whether you are driving on the highway or through a school zone, you always need to be on the lookout for pedestrians. Though it is unlikely that someone would want to try and cross a busy highway, you never know who might get out of their car on the side of the road. Hitting a pedestrian will land you in boiling hot water and can lead to both civil and criminal lawsuits. Therefore, you need to be very careful when driving anywhere you suspect pedestrians may be more common.

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To most parents, there is nothing more terrifying than letting a teenager get his or her license and start driving. Parents tend to imagine every possible worst-case scenario – the car breaks down in the middle of nowhere, a drunk driver hits the teen’s vehicle – and really, they have cause to worry.

Auto Accidents Are Top Cause of Teen Deaths in USA new report states that auto accidents are actually the number one killer of teenagers in the United States, beating out both homicide and suicide. The study, which was funded by the General Motors Foundation, says that both drivers and passengers are at risk.

The report was mostly based off a national survey that looked at 1,000 teenagers between the ages of 13 and 19. According to the report’s findings, 2,439 teenagers died in 2012 due to auto accidents on U.S. roads. Of those teenagers, about 56 percent of them were driving at the time, and 44 percent of them were passengers at the time. The study also found that more than half of those killed did not put on a seat belt.

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Whenever you see the yellow diamond-shaped sign with two black figures crossing a road, you know you’ve entered a school zone. Typically the speed limit drops, and drivers need to be extra cautious to avoid hitting any parents and children when school is in session.

Are Sacramento School Zones Safe?Whether or not school zones in Sacramento are safe depends almost exclusively on the drivers and the attention to the road. Most research concludes that each year roughly 100 children are killed on their way to or from school, and another 25,000 are injured in accidents around school zones.

Of course, children should be taught how to stop, look and listen when crossing the street, and many school districts employ crossing guards to get children safely across the street. However, neither of those factors excuse a negligent, distracted driver who is speeding through a school zone.

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How cool would it be to never have to drive your car again? Some people are lucky enough to experience this now. They have chauffeurs or private drivers to handle the task, but what about the regular, average Joes out there? What if you never had to worrying about making your morning commute because your car would simply drive you itself?

Self-driving vehicles are quickly becoming the new frontier of technology, capturing the minds of those in Silicon Valley, but the actual implementation of driverless cars might need to wait a generation or two. In a recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, 48 percent of Americans said that they would ride in driverless cars. More than half of urban and suburban citizens said they were at least interested in this technology, and a whopping 59 percent of college graduates in the U.S. said they would be willing to give it a try.

Before you know it, seeing a driverless car on the road could become part of your normal routine. You might even own one! Here is what you need to know about the driverless car phenomenon.

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When a car crash suddenly goes from bad to explosive, there is little you or any other bystander can do about it. One evening around 10 pm in 2002, a California man driving a black Ferrari at high speeds suddenly lost control of his vehicle and went veering off to the left where the car struck several trees on a grassy median and then went into the other lanes before finally stopping. After that horrific crash, the car caught on fire.

Explosive Car AccidentsLuckily, the driver and his passenger were just able to make it out of the car before it was inflamed, and no one else was injured. The Ferrari did not hit any other vehicles.

While rare, cars catching on fire are highly dangerous and definitely something you want to avoid, but do you know what to do if something like this does happen to your car? Let us tell you what you should know if you ever find yourself in this situation. Of course, every situation will be unique, but if you generally know what to do and what not to do, you’ll be ready for the emergency.

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Personal injury lawsuits can really do a number on your finances. When you are hit by another driver, usually you will rely on their insurance to pay for the damages to your car as well as any medical fees. If the driver is uninsured, you will probably go after the driver with a personal injury lawsuit, but no matter what, it will cost you plenty of time and energy.

Some states are better than others when it comes to personal injury and safety. WalletHub.com rated all 50 states plus the District of Columbia in order from the riskiest states that will hit your wallet the hardest (#1) to the most lenient states that may save you money but not protection (#51). To judge the level of safety, the site looked at the level of auto insurance required for drivers.

Auto accidents are one of the leading causes for many personal injury lawsuits, and not all states require drivers to have enough insurance to cover damages. That means if another car in the state with the least strict laws hits you, there’s a good chance you will end up paying for your own damages, unless you chose to go after that driver in a personal injury lawsuit.

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