Traffic conditions change rapidly with the time of day, the weather, and even social and entertainment events taking place near where you drive. It can be difficult to constantly have to evaluate risk and determine what will be the best way to keep yourself and the other occupants of your vehicle safe.
Learning more about the factors that most frequently play a role in major car crashes can help you prioritize avoiding the most dangerous decisions or situations on the road. Do you know what the number one cause of motor vehicle collisions is?
There’s a reason people are so excited about self-driving cars
When looking at an analysis of the top causes of motor vehicle crashes, one thing becomes readily apparent. Human error is unquestionably the number one biggest contributing factor to serious and even deadly motor vehicle crashes. Concern about human mistakes is one reason why people push so hard for autonomous vehicles, as they could reduce the number of crashes on the road.
Human error takes on many forms, but it almost always involves someone making a bad decision or failing to consider road conditions. Many of the guesses you might have posited about the top cause of motor vehicle crashes likely fall into the category of human error.
Drunk driving involves a person either putting their own wishes ahead of public safety or mistakenly presuming they are less drunk than they actually are before they get behind the wheel. Distracted driving is a similar scenario.
Drivers also cause crashes by exceeding the speed limit, going out on roads when the weather is terrible and not adjusting their speed or driving habits to reflect road conditions. Simply put, other people on the road will be the biggest risk factor for you getting to where you want to be safely.
Human error causing a crash means someone is liable
There are cases where police officers responding to a crash determine that road conditions and not driver behaviors may have been the primary contributing factor. Inclement weather or a sudden sinkhole would be examples of situations in which drivers may not have the ability to adjust appropriately in time to prevent a crash.
In most other situations, police will be able to determine that one or the other of the drivers made a mistake that caused the collision. Once officers assign fault, it allows the party that was not responsible for the crash to file an insurance claim or even pursue a personal injury claim against the party whose human error caused the car wreck.