Survey results on the most common car crash causes

Every year in North Carolina and across the U.S., there are more than six million car crashes and an average of 40,000 fatalities. The majority of crashes are due to some form of negligence, as one will see in the list below of the most common types of car accidents. The data comes from the Department of Transportation’s National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey.

Driver falling asleep or losing control

Seven percent of crashes are attributed to drivers falling asleep at the wheel. This is particularly deadly, composing 21% of all fatal crashes. Drivers can lose control in other ways, such as when going too fast on slippery roads. Poorly maintained vehicles can lose control, too. In any event, loss of control is behind 11% of crashes.

Blind left turns, lane drifting and more

Around 12% crashes are due to blind left turns, such as drivers make when behind a bus. Even more prominent are rear-end collisions, which make up 23% to 30% of all crashes. The main issue here is that many drivers tailgate. Then, 30% of crashes involve drivers who don’t stay in their lane because of inattention.

Around 36% of pre-crash events took place at intersections. The survey showed how a lot of drivers would, for example, fail to stop completely when turning right on red. Many victims in these crashes are pedestrians.

Filing a claim with legal assistance

Like many victims of car collisions, you may be wondering if you can file a claim against the other driver’s insurance company, especially in a state like North Carolina, which adheres to the strict rule of pure contributory negligence. A lawyer may give you a good idea of how the case could go. You may even have the lawyer negotiate for you when the time comes to seek out a settlement.