Car Accidents: Some Facts And Statistics You Really Need To Know

Car accidents are such common place in our society that many just write them off as a fact of life. It is true that accidents can happen, but more times than not it was someone’s carelessness that led to the crash. Most motor vehicle accidents could have been avoided if it were not for the other driver’s negligence.

1. The average text message takes 4.6 seconds to write and send. While driving that would take your eyes off the road long enough to drive the length of a football field blind if you are travelling at 55 miles per hour.

* When you also talk on a cell phone while driving, you are increasing your chance of being in an accident by 400 percent.

2. Vehicle rollovers are the most deadly type of car accidents.

3. More than 1.2 million people die in road traffic crashes every year.

4. According to various research men actually cause twice as many accidents as women.

Men are more prone to motor vehicle crashes than women and as a result, die more frequently.

Guys covers more miles and engages in reckless and riskier driving practices.

5. Simply wearing a seatbelt reduces your risk of a crash related death by 50 percent.

*. Men are 10% likely to use their seatbelt than women.

6. In Nigeria, more than 50% of drivers dont use seatbelts for the safety purpose but to avoid fine by the FRSC.

7. Air bags work when an electronic sensor in the car senses a sudden, sharp deceleration (such as a crash) and detonates a small charge which inflates the bags.

8. Fatal injuries have been reduced by 11% to drivers in an automobile collision in which an air bag has been deployed.

9. The air bag is inflated at speeds up to 200 miles per hour. Thisfaster than the blink of an eye.

10. At the start of the 1998 model year, all new passenger cars sold in the United States must have both driver and passengerside air bags.

11. Air bags are not designed to replace seat belts, they are to supplement lap and shoulder restraints to help limit head and chest injuries.

12. If a passenger or driver is not fully restrained they may contact the air bag before it is fully inflated, they may sustain serious or fatal injuries.

13. Remember air bags are supplemental devices. Use both lap and shoulder belts on every drive and Wear the lap belt under the abdomen and low across the hip.

14. Wear the shoulder belt portion down over the collar bone away from the neck and cross over the breast bone.

15. The driver and passenger should move their seats as far back as practical, especially for people that are smaller in stature. Try to keep a 10 inch margin between the steering wheel and your breast bone. If you cannot keep a 10 inch margin, then tilt the steering wheel downward, this will aim the air bag at your chest instead of your head and neck, Slightly recline your seat back, this may help you achieve the 10 inch margin. However, if reclining the seat back hinders your view of the road, raise yourself by using a non-slippery, firm cushion, or raise your seat if the vehicle has a lumbar option.

16. Children under the age of 12 should ride buckled up in the back seat.

17. Small children should ride in the back seat in a car seat that is approved for their age and size.

18. Never put infants, seated in rear facing car seats, in the front seat of a car with a passenger side air bag.

19. If an infant must ride in the front seat of a car that has a passenger side air bag, put the infant in a front facing car seat. Children that must ride in the front seat should use a booster seat, or a correct fitting lap and shoulder belt, and then move the seat back as far as possible.

20. As many as 50 million people are injured or disabled by road traffic crashes every year.

21. Half of all crash victims are vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, cyclists, and motorcyclists.

21. Helmets reduce fatal and serious head injuries by up to 45%.

22. In a month, drivers will disobey or go against traffic lights/regulations two times.

23. Thirty-One Percent of Fatal Accidents Involves Alcohol.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2012, 31 percent of all traffic-related fatalities in the U.S. involved an alcohol-impaired driver.

24. Potholes are very frustrating for drivers, because sometimes they can’t be avoided. Swerving into another lane when cars are coming trying to avoid the potholes has caused thousands of collisions.