by John Tyler

Created on: December 10, 2009

In 2005, there were 6.4 million car crashes in the United States. These automobile crashes cost drivers $230 billion dollars, resulted in 2.9 million injuries and the death of 42,636 people. This means approximately 115 people each day die from an automobile accident – once every 13 minutes. In fact, car crashes are the leading cause of death for Americans 35 years old and older. We all took driver’s ed. and a test before they gave us our license though, so what’s the deal?

Car crashers happen for a number of reasons but statistics show that 98% of car accidents can be traced back to a single distracted driver. This means that even when you are driving safe, you’re still at risk. Drivers can be distracted in a number of ways; rubbernecking (16%), cell phone use, fatigue (12%), passengers (9%), scenery (10%), or adjusting the radio (7%). Let us take a few moments to examine a few of these distractions individually.

Rubbernecking: Most of these are simply out of your ability to prevent; however, if you are near the scene of an accident be extra alert as chances are someone around you is starring at the wreckage and not the road. According to a study conducted by the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles and Virginia Commonwealth University rubbernecking is the leading accident causing distraction.

Cell Phones: You can watch out for drivers on their cell phones as studies have suggested that cell phone use more than quadruples your risk factor while driving, and some 85 of the 100 million people who own cell-phones in the United States are talking while driving on a regular basis.

Fatigue: Fatigue results in approximately 100,000 automobile accidents per year, the greatest risk hours occur between noon and 2:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. Symptoms of fatigue include heavy eyelids, yawning, if you see a vehicle drifting back and forth (or you find your own vehicle drifting), of if you spot a vehicle that frequently alters its speed significantly for little to no reason. If you are driving with fatigue you could see things appear in the road that aren’t really there, misjudge traffic and most importantly be a real danger to yourself, your passengers and others on the road.

Some other causes that we haven’t discussed yet include drunk driving, speeding, aggressive driving and something we actually can’t control – the weather.

In 2004, an estimated 16,654 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes – or

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