Not too many people realize that one of the causes of car accidents is over correcting. It’s easy enough to do. You’re not thinking, you swerve to avoid a person, object, another car or a pothole and suddenly you’re in hot water and in an accident. If you’re lucky, you will survive with non life-threatening injuries. If you’re not lucky, you may be killed. Over-correcting is the cause of many seemingly “unexplained” accidents that happen on the highways of our nation.
One piece of advice that an experienced car accident attorney may pass on to you is that if the object is not huge and appears to be something that won’t suffer it you hit it, then go ahead and hit it. Don’t over correct or you may lose control of your vehicle. If you’re staring down a road cone, or tumbleweed or even tire debris on the road, just go over it. Your life may depend on that decision.
Of course, having said that, there are things you would want to avoid at all costs, such as construction barriers, things that have fallen off trucks, a deer or motorcycle to name just a few. If you have the reaction time to do it, gradually correct your trajectory if it’s possible. It’s generally better to hit some objects than to swerve at a high rate of speed. This is something that many car accident attorneys have seen time and time again; a split second decision that kills or maims.
Other causes of accidents on the highways and byways of the nation involve people who, for reasons likely known only to them, drive on the shoulder of the road. That’s also called the parking lane, the place where you pull over for a break or get pulled over for a driving infraction like speeding. The facts are that the shoulder is not a driving lane, no matter what people think, and people who drive in it are asking for trouble, serious injuries or death when someone turns into them. If that happens to you, you will need the help of a skilled car accident attorney to claim damages.
Sometimes it’s a given that weather conditions make the roads difficult to drive on. For instance, rain, sleet, hail, dust storms and snow storms can create some nasty road conditions. Unfortunately, there are a great number of people who still drive like the pavement was clear and dry. They go too fast and totally ignore the speed limits.
If the roads are awful, slow down. It may save a life, and that life may be “yours.” Speed limits are posted for one reason and one reason only; they are the maximum speed you may drive in good conditions. If those “good” conditions don’t exist, drop the rate of speed to allow for reaction time to handle the weather.
No doubt you heard this word of warning from your mom or dad if they taught you how to drive. “Pay attention to where you are going.” No truer a word was spoken and accident statistics prove that’s the case. Far too often people are killed because the “other” driver got distracted, was talking on a cell phone, texting, eating while driving, drinking (a beverage) while driving, picking something up off the floor or trying to comb their hair or put on makeup.
Drivers tend to think that it’s only just a quick second to pick up that change, put on lip gloss, key in a phone number or take a bite of a sandwich and really, what could it hurt? That is all it takes to cause an accident – that one split second could cost you and someone else their life.
Ever seen someone in front of you change lanes without looking? It happens quite frequently and it can cause major heartache for those who get into an accident as a result of this negligence. Everyone has blind spots, and if you don’t do the visual check before you change lanes, you could be running someone off the road or at the very least side swiping them into a roll over.
These kinds of accidents have the potential to be fatal and most car accident attorneys have handled cases just like it. Shoulder checking is taught to all new drivers. Unfortunately, once they get some experience behind the wheel, they think they don’t have to abide by the rules of the road.
One other thing that you really should not do is make sudden and illegal turns or perform other traffic antics. If you make a U-turn where it is posted as being illegal, the consequences could be fatal. At the very least, you may wind up not being able to walk as a result of being in an accident. Just pay attention to the rules of the road, the lines and signs, the signals and other drivers and you should be safe – and so should the other drivers.
