COMMON CAUSES OF CAR ACCIDENTS

Car accidents don’t just happen everyday in California, they happen every minute. 3,074 fatal car accidents in California, many of which were completely avoidable. While the majority of fatal car accidents happen in rural areas throughout the United States, California is the opposite– with 61% of deadly car accidents happening in urban areas. And Los Angeles leads the way in Southern California when it comes to these deadly collisions with over 630 fatal car accidents in 2013. Other Southern California counties fatal crashes include: Orange County (185 deadly crashes in 2013); Riverside County (225 deadly crashes: San Bernadino (264 deadly crashes); San Diego (201 deadly crashes). While a Los Angeles wrongful death car accident lawsuit will never bring your loved one back, it can help ease the financial strain of the loss you have suffered as well as provided a sense of justice by holing the other party accountable.

COMMON CAUSES OF CAR ACCIDENTS

Drivers continue to make the same mistakes everyday, leading to serious injuries or death. Here’s a look at some of the common causes of California car accidents:

• Drunk Driving: Always illegal and all too common on California roadways (especially over holidays and weekends(, drunk driving is responsible for more deadly car accidents in Southern California than any other cause. And you can see why– when a driver is drunk they are not in the mental or physical state to be operating a vehicle. When a car accident is the result of a drunk driver, there is often a civil (wrongful death or personal injury) as well as a criminal lawsuit.
• Reckless Driving: Reckless driving can take a variety of forms but what it boils down to is this– the driver was acting in a way that was and ultimately did endanger the lives and safety of others.
• Distracted Driving: The distractions keep increasing as smartphones and other gadgets take drivers attention away from what they should be doing– driving with their eyes and ears on the road. But it is not just technology that is considered distracted driving– applying makeup and eating are also common culprits of this major cause of California car accidents.
• Unsafe Road Conditions: Let’s face it, the Los Angeles roadways are not in pristine condition and unsafe road conditions, either because of neglect or weather, greatly increase your chance of getting into a car accident.
• Underage and Elderly Driving Mistakes: While the experience levels vary with these two age groups, the driving mistakes and rate of car accidents increase with these two distinct age groups. For the new drivers on the road, mistakes happen because they lack experience to respond to many driving scenarios and for the older drivers on the road, they lack the reaction time to respond.
• Mechanical Issues and Defects: It’s not you, it’s your car. Or someone else’s car. Car issues cause car accidents. Take the classic example of a car simply dying on a freeway– a driver may not have the time to get to the shoulder or put on their hazard lights and end up causing a multiple car pile-up.
• Breaking Traffic Laws: While the actions in this category may not rise to the level of drunk or reckless driving, when a driver breaks eve a minor traffic law, it places everyone around them in danger. Running a red light or stop sign, failing to signal and ignoring the speed limit are all examples of behaviors that cause car accidents everyday in Southern California.

There are more car accidents in California than any other state. And car accident victims receive more money when they hire an attorney to help with their case than when they try to handle it on their own. Curious what your case is worth and what the process is like? Fill out out Contact Us form to schedule your free consultation with us today. At Walch Law, we have a 95%+ success rate and over four decades of experience helping victims of Los Angeles car accidents maximize their recovery and limit the impact the accident has on their life. We look forward to helping you.