Common Car Accident Causes

    TAMPA, FL, August 04, 2011 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Accidents, as the old cliche goes, happen. But a majority of car accidents don't have to happen.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there were more than 5.5 million police-reported traffic accidents in the United States in 2009, the last year for which complete figures are available. Of those, 28 percent resulted in injuries; 20 percent of all injury crashes involved distracted driving.

Although fewer than 1 percent of those collisions resulted in fatalities, more than 30 percent of all fatal car accidents involved alcohol-impaired driving.

While not every accident is preventable or the result of driver error, some type of driver negligence typically plays a role in car accidents. Among the most common car accident causes are:

- Animal collision
- Distracted driving
- Driver intoxication
- Excessive speed
- Failure to yield/stop
- Hydroplaning
- Lane-change violation
- Lack of sleep/driver exhaustion
- Mechanical malfunction/design defects
- Poor road conditions
- Reckless driving
- Tailgating
- Weather

With the rise of hand-held electronic devices and vehicles equipped with global-positioning systems (GPS) and DVD players, distracted driving has become an area of concern nearly on par with intoxicated drinking. Thirty-four states currently ban drivers from texting while driving; eight states prohibit all drivers from using hand-held electronic devices while driving.

If you suffered personal injury in a car accident that was caused by the negligence of another driver, please visit the website of the Tampa, St. Petersburg, Sarasota and Gainesville, Florida, car accident attorneys at the Luhrsen Law Group for more information about your legal options at www.luhrsen.com.

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