Every day, more than 15,000 car accidents occur across the nation. This alarming number was based on an average of fifteen years worth of auto accident data, which is collected, compiled and released annually by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). While the wider view provided by this massive amount of data is clearly invaluable, it’s also important sometimes to place the focus on the information that might make an impact a little closer to home.
Looking at the numbers
Examining the data that has emerged as a result of vehicle safety crash tests performed by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) has shown not only the different types of car accidents that are most common, but also which of those are the most dangerous for the drivers and passengers in the car at the time of a collision.
Excluding accidents involving vehicles that collide with pedestrians or cyclists, the types of accidents that occur in the United States are generally one of the following:
● Head on Collisions
● Rollovers
● Side Impact Collisions
● Rear End Collisions
The most dangerous kinds of car accidents
Of the types of car crashes listed above, those resulting in rollovers (which are classified as any accident in which the vehicle tips or lands on its roof or onto one side at any point during the actual collision) are most often considered to be the most dangerous in terms of injuries incurred.
However, by measuring the same data based on the number of fatalities alone, a different result becomes more visible. By limiting the criteria to include only accidents that resulted in a fatality, it becomes quite clear that head-on collisions (also sometimes referred to as frontal collisions) are responsible for the most auto accident fatalities, accounting for 54% of all traffic-related deaths in the year 2015.
Factoring in cause and Colorado
Unfortunately, this type of collision is all too often the result of what has been found to be the number one cause of most auto accidents in the state of Colorado – driver negligence. This term actually covers a wide array of actions, most of which can be considered human errors.
Examples of these include driving while fatigued or distracted, driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol and driving recklessly and/or aggressively. While there are several other common causes of accidents on our Colorado roads (including inclement weather and the dangerous road conditions that come along with it, as well as things like unexpected vehicle defects or equipment failure), driver negligence is consistently the cause in the majority of collisions, often resulting in the serious personal injury or even death of those involved.
Drivers must make the effort to avoid the kind of accidental or willful driving habits that are known to increase their risk of being involved in a serious or fatal car crash – for their own sake, for the sake of their passengers and the sake of every other driver with whom they interact every single day.
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