You know that old cautionary warning about how 75% (or whatever percentage it is) of auto accidents take place within five miles of your house? Well, when I was a kid, I wondered why people who wanted to avoid accidents didn’t find that spot five miles from their house where all the accidents take place and then stay away from it. Or go around it.
Of course, it doesn’t exactly work that way. There are some ways, however, that you can cut your risk of death or injury when driving.
First of all, do all of your driving in or near urban areas. According to the Highway Law Data Institute, even though the number of miles traveled in urban areas has doubled in the past 25 years, the majority of fatal crashes still occur outside cities. Why? You’ve got higher speeds (no stop lights and seldom heavy traffic to slow people down); two-lane roads with lots of curves where cars come at each other head-on, separated only by inches, and then there’s also many more hazards and potential hazards that you won’t find on urban streets.
Though you’re less likely to die in an auto pile-up on a city street than in the country, such an accident is still more likely than not to generate some non-fatal injuries and property damage. So it’s good to watch out for the kinds of things that cause those urban accidents.
Here are the most common ones, in order of frequency:
- Drivers running stop lights or doing “California stops” at intersections controlled by stop signs.
- Rear-enders caused by drivers following the car in front of them too closely.
- Veering out of a lane (asleep?; talking on a cell phone?) and hitting a stationary object.
- Swerving into oncoming traffic.
- Turning left in front of an oncoming vehicle.
Be particularly careful at intersections. In 2009 (the latest year for which we have these kind of statistics), 55% of accidents occurred at intersections controlled by traffic lights, and 21% happened in intersections controlled by stop signs.
Get all of your business done in the morning, get home by noon, and stay there until 9 pm. Most urban accidents happen between noon and 9 pm. Less than 10% of them occur between midnight and 6 am. However, you have about a one-in-five chance that someone will be killed when there’s an accident during that midnight-to-6 time period. With lighter traffic, people drive faster. It’s also the time when people are more likely to fall asleep at the wheel and also when drunk drivers are coming home from bars.
Drive with your headlights on whenever you’re out and about, even during the day. You’re more visible and less likely to be hit.
Drive a car with side airbags. You’re more likely to survive without sustaining injuries a “t-bone” collision by another vehicle hitting you head-to-midpoint.
Finally, the best way to avoid an auto accident? If you’re going only a short distance, leave the car in your driveway and walk. The exercise will do you good… and your risk of collision goes down to zero.
