Can you make deliberate choices to reduce accident-related odds?
You certainly don’t want to get involved in a car accident, and you do what you can to drive safely every day. You follow traffic laws. You stay below the speed limit. You take your time and make careful decisions, rather than rushing or succumbing to outside pressures. You virtually never get distracted and you never use your cellphone behind the wheel.
Even so, you know that all of these decisions may not be enough. If someone else makes a mistake, they could still cause an accident that leads to injuries. Are there any additional deliberate decisions you could make to reduce the odds that this will happen to you?
Don’t drive at night
One thing that may help is to avoid driving at night. There are more drunk drivers at night and a higher rate of fatal car accidents. Relative traffic levels always drop significantly at night, but that is still when roughly half of all fatal crashes take place, which means the rate of fatal accidents – and the risk of suffering one – is much higher than it is during the day.
Don’t turn left
Another potential option is to avoid left turns. Some delivery companies already do this. Whenever you turn left, you cross oncoming lanes and potentially put yourself in jeopardy. All it takes is one other driver to make a mistake like running a red light or going out of turn at a four-way stop and you’ll get involved in an accident. As a result, taking longer to make multiple right turns may be safer.
Increase your following distances
Finally, you’ll want to give yourself more time and space to react to the mistakes other drivers are inevitably going to make. Keep your distance from other vehicles. Increase your following distances to three seconds or more. Even giving yourself an extra second or two to react could help you avoid a crash that someone else otherwise would’ve caused.
Have you been injured?
Unfortunately, there’s nothing that fully guarantees you won’t be involved in an accident. There are always risks you’ll encounter due to the behavior of other drivers around you on the road. If you get injured as a result of another’s conduct, you’ll need to know how to seek financial compensation for medical bills, lost wages and other costs. Seeking legal guidance is a good place to start.