The 3 Top Causes Of Car Accidents In America

America has always had a reputation as a nation of go-getters and high achievers, and this certainly isn’t dying down with all the tech we have access to. With all the texts, emails and IMs that we rely on for our careers and personal lives, multi-tasking is a part of day to day life for millions. When you’re behind the wheel, however, it’s extremely important to just slow down, and stay focussed on one thing. Here are some of the most common causes for car accidents in the nation.

Speeding

As I mentioned in the introduction, our mindsets have been a little warped with all the speed and convenience we have access to in our day-to-day lives. Everything from our mobile devices to ATMs to the service at fast food joints is faster and easier to use than ever before. While this is great in some ways, it’s also whipped everyone into one big rush, and has made many people a little too blasé about speeding. According to the Department of Transportation, speeding is up there with the most common causes of car accidents in the US. Despite what it may feel like, speed limits are there to save lives, not to make you late for important appointments! If you’ve been overlooking your driving speed a little too much, it’s time to turn that around!

Distracted Driving

Distracted driving has been the number one cause of car accidents in the States for some time, and this isn’t showing any signs of changing. Drivers who talk on the phone, eat, read send texts, or even talk too much with the other people in the car, are putting themselves and everyone else on the road at risk. Using a mobile device at the wheel has been found to make you four times more likely to be involved in an accident, and texting or composing messages while driving will make you a frightening 23 times more likely to be involved in one! With all of us more obsessed with our handheld devices than ever, this has sent many cases to more than one car accident lawyer in the past couple of decades. I don’t care how experienced a driver you are, put the phone down and keep your eyes on the road!

Intoxicated Driving

As always, driving under the influence is one of the most dangerous things a motorist can do. MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), an influential pressure group aligned against the issue, once published an estimate that 300,000 incidents of drunk driving occur every day. Driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs is extremely irresponsible and hazardous, and what’s so sad about this issue is that all of the deaths attributed to drunk driving are completely preventable. Hopefully, you never even consider getting behind the wheel feeling just a little tipsy. The next time you’re planning a big night out, be sure to set someone as the designated driver well ahead of time. If this means taking your friends’ keys away from them, so be it!