The average driver in Colorado violates numerous traffic ordinances every week and doesn’t think much of doing so. So long as they don’t get caught or cause a crash, drivers may not worry about their habit of bending or breaking certain traffic laws.
For example, it is standard practice for people to exceed the posted speed limit and to merge or turn without using their turn signals to indicate their intentions to other drivers. Compared with drunk driving or drag racing, such minor technical infractions may not seem very serious.
Lane violations are a similar, seemingly minor form of traffic offense. State law requires that you drive in one lane and that you indicate to those around you if you intend to cross from one lane to another. While it may seem frivolous or even predatory for police officers to write citations for lane violations, these infections have a strong association with increased collision risk.
Lane violations cause major wrecks
Some of the most seemingly innocuous behaviors can actually significantly increase someone’s risk of a collision. Veering out of your lane into another lane might mean that you strike oncoming traffic or that someone else swerves to avoid you and ends up hitting you when you reenter the appropriate lane of traffic.
According to crash data and analysis provided by the Colorado State Patrol, lane violations are one of the top reasons that modern collisions occur. There were 1,512 crashes related to lane violations between 2019 and 2021 in Colorado that led to injury or death. Lane violations can occur at any time and on any road in Colorado, but certain conditions increase your risk of a lane violation affecting your drive.
Drivers between the ages of 22 and 39 are the most likely to cause crashes after leaving their lane of traffic, and I-25, I-70, H50 and H470 are the roads with the highest rates of lane violation citations. Drivers who are aware of and consistently compliant with Colorado traffic statutes are less likely to cause collisions or to end up at fault for a wreck because of a minor mistake that they made at the wheel.
Learning more about what causes Colorado car crashes can be as important as knowing how to protect yourself if you ever experience one.
