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Car Accident Injuries: Causes and Preventive Measures

Injury-causing car accidents have been going on practically since automobiles were invented. The first recorded accidental injury occurred in 1869. An Irish woman named Mary Ward was thrown from the steam carriage she was riding in when she hit an especially deep pothole in the road. She was immediately crushed by one of the wheels, her injuries causing instant death. In fact, her cousin had been the inventor of this new type of vehicle, in a cruel example of irony.

In the last 25 years or so, due to crash injuries resulting in fatalities have dropped by an impressive 50% worldwide. This is mainly due to increased emphasis by governments and car manufacturers on safety, including the standard use of airbags to reduce the number of serious injuries and deaths caused by frontal and side collisions between cars.

Unfortunately, the United States is one of the few nations where automobile injuries and fatalities have increased during this same period. Experts suggest this has several causes, including a higher number of motorists overall, a steady rise in the number of large trucks and SUVs sold, and a sharp rise in the number of people using cell phones and other tech devices while driving. their cars.

Another common cause of car accident injuries is “rubber neck.” This is the term for slowing down (sometimes suddenly) to see an unusual situation happening on (or near) the road. People often do this to check for car accidents, which can cause other motorists behind who aren’t paying close attention to not slow down or stop in time. Rubbernecking is the number 1 cause of all rear-end car accidents, and in particular whiplash injuries, in the United States.

Car accident prevention designed to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities focuses on technology and changing human behavior while behind the wheel. Modern cars and trucks are equipped with airbags, and proximity and drift monitors are also becoming more common. Both emit loud tones to alert the car driver that the vehicle is entering a dangerous area. In Europe, this has been shown to reduce accidental injuries from both car-to-car collisions and single-car accidents.

Changing driver behaviors to reduce car accidents is a tough nut to crack, especially in the United States, where car ownership is ingrained in the culture. People spend so much time in their cars nowadays that it results in a feeling of invulnerability. The subsequent lack of defensive driving is one reason that accidental injuries from car crashes in the United States are bucking the worldwide downward trend.

Perhaps surprisingly, US states with less restrictive speed limit laws actually have a slightly lower incidence of car accidents resulting in injury or death. This can be explained in part by fewer cars on the road per capita vs. some of the states with lower speed limits. However, even when adjusted for this effect, the stats still show a slight advantage in states with higher caps. Advocates of stricter enforcement of posted speed limits may be pursuing the wrong strategy, if the goal is the prevention of car accident injuries.

A better approach to accident prevention should probably focus on two areas that lead to many serious car accidents: driver distractions and age. Cell phones are becoming the biggest distraction, with more and more states prohibiting their use by the driver while the vehicle is in motion. Even if you live where it’s allowed, that’s an extremely bad idea! Recent studies have shown a clear connection between phone use and car accidents.

The age of the driver has an interesting correlation with car accidents that cause injuries and fatalities. At both ends of the spectrum, ages 16-20 and 70+, a much higher percentage of crashes occur than other age ranges. Crash prevention based on driver age is not easily implemented, but calls from the public and advocacy groups are on the rise. Some suggestions include mandatory driver’s education courses, annual driving tests to re-evaluate skills, and even a magnetic sticker or decal on all cars driven by a person in any of the age demographics. The latter implies the idea that alerting other drivers will increase their attention when driving defensively, reducing the frequency of accidents.

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