Drowsy Driving, Rolling Stops and Other Car Accident Causes

Fatalities on the road are increasing with deadly motor vehicle accidents going up 8 percent in 2015 and over 40,000 deaths in 2016. A car accident involving a person in Mississippi may be caused by one of six common scenarios. One of those is a driver drifting out of the lane or off the road. This accounts for about 33 percent of car accidents.

Rear-ending another driver is another common type of accident. Furthermore, these are not all harmless minor accidents as cars can flip and cause serious injury in this type of accident. Accidents are also caused by drivers who make blind maneuvers such as going around a vehicle too large to see past.

In more than 10 percent of crashes, people lose control of their vehicles. This includes 2 percent of crashes caused by drivers not slowing down on wet surfaces and 5 percent where drivers take turns at a high speed and maneuver aggressively. Driving while drowsy is a major cause of road fatalities with more than 20 percent of fatal crashes happening when a driver falls asleep at the wheel. Finally, coming to a rolling stop causes 6 percent of pedestrian fatalities. This creates a situation in which the driver is simply trying to do too much multitasking and may not see walkers, particularly children who account for 21 percent of those deaths.

Motor vehicle accidents that are not fatal can still lead to catastrophic injuries. People may miss work during recovery while medical expenses mount. It may also be necessary to replace or repair a vehicle after a crash. If another driver causes a person’s injury, that driver should usually pay compensation. However, this does not always happen, or the compensation may be insufficient. A person in this situation might want to file a lawsuit against the driver who caused the accident.