Reviewing the Top Causes of Highway Fatalities
Every now and then, drivers in North Carolina need a review of the top causes are in highway accidents. This is because highway accidents all too often end in fatalities, and when they don’t, they can lead to personal injury claims with potentially high settlements.
Some of the Top Causes of Highway Accidents in North Carolina
- Sometimes, the highway design itself may cause drivers to make unsafe decisions. Depending on what geographical features the engineers had to work around, a highway could be beset with tight curves and narrow or missing shoulders. Blind intersections may meet the drivers once they exit the highway. Rain and snow also obscure the visibility of the road and other cars. Wet roads could cause others to veer out of control.
- Impaired driving, whether the substance involved is alcohol, prescription drugs, or other drugs legal or illegal, is a major factor in highway deaths. Even buzzed driving can have negative consequences. When people drink excessively, they could experience blurred vision, slow judgment and reflexes, and impaired depth perception. It could also be said that anger impairs drivers by leading them to make irrational decisions.
- Lastly, distractions lead to inattention, which leads to accidents. Taking one’s eyes away from the road, even to adjust the air conditioning, can raise the risk of a crash. Smartphones and in-car entertainment systems are also known to encourage distracted behavior.
In a personal injury case, the first thing that must be determined is who was at fault. If victims contributed to the accident, then this may lower any compensation provided by the driver. If the victim died, though, contributory negligence will make a wrongful death suit void. This is why the families of those killed in car accidents may benefit from legal representation. A lawyer might assess the claim, and if it’s valid, he or she may then hire investigators to gather supporting proof.
