Most people know that crashes are a major safety risk, but they likely believe that one will never happen to them. Not only do people tend to overestimate their own driving skills, they may also underestimate how their personal habits affect their safety on the road.
Personal behavior can have a direct influence on someone’s chances of getting hurt in a collision. Seemingly minor choices that people make in traffic on a daily basis can have a profound influence on their overall likelihood of getting into a crash. The following three examples are perhaps the most common contributors to accidents nationwide.
Driving too fast
Speeding is perhaps the single most ubiquitous traffic offense. Those on a deadline or running late in particular often resent the idea that the state controls how quickly they can reach their destination. People tend to drive at least slightly over the speed limit in many scenarios, a choice that increases their likelihood of getting into a crash and the possibility that the state will declare them the party to blame for the wreck.
Getting too close to other vehicles
Maintaining enough space between the front of one’s vehicle and the rear of another vehicle is crucial to crash prevention. People need adequate space to stop if they don’t want to end up declared responsible for a collision. Wet pavement and higher speeds, as well as larger and heavier vehicles, all necessitate maintaining larger stopping distances. Like speed, maintaining an appropriate driving distance is frequently a factor that directly leads to someone causing a crash.
A failure to maintain focus
Particularly if someone has a very long commute or drives throughout the day as part of their job, they may multitask at the wheel or distract themselves to avoid fatigue. Unfortunately, those practices can be very dangerous. Any activity that forces someone to take their hands off the wheel, makes them look away from the road or takes over their mental focus is a distraction that could very likely result in them causing a crash. Drivers need to be aware of their surroundings and compliant with traffic laws if they hope to effectively minimize the possibility of a wreck.
Understanding how small habits can increase the possibility of a crash – and accident-related liability – may help motorists in Kentucky make smarter choices about how they drive.