Drivers Stay Vigilant - Vehicular Injuries Are Always A Risk
America is fortunate to have been a country young enough—and industrious enough—that it quickly adapted to the invention of motor vehicles. The most significant enabler of their use in the USA has been past governments' wisdom to construct streets and highways that literally connect the entire nation from one coast to the next.
As a result, here in Florida, where the weather is warm all year round, driving for pleasure or work is an everyday activity. But with so many millions of vehicles on the road on any given day, this brings with it one big problem. There is an increase in the risk of injuries through motor vehicle accidents.
The Numbers Don't Lie
Florida has many vehicles on the road at any given time, although during the workday is when vehicles are at their most numerous. Over the course of a year, Florida reports over 200,000 accidents annually. Of those accidents, over 2900 are fatal.
This is just basic math at work—the more vehicles on the roads, the greater the risk of exposure to a potential accident event. Typically, a motor vehicle accident will occur due to driver error, such as distracted driving on the "low" end or, in the most severe cases, drunk driving. However, even if both drivers are sober and driving safely, accidents can still happen due to storm conditions, poor road construction, or random mechanical or logistic defects, such as freight incorrectly harnessed in a truck coming loose and spilling onto the road.
There are three types of vehicle accidents most common on Florida roads. They are:
Car Accidents
Since most vehicles are cars, it should come as no surprise that the car is also the most common vehicle involved in accidents. There's a wide variety of cars on today's roads, from sleek, modern electric cars to old station wagons still used to the ever-popular SUV so popular with current drivers.
Fortunately, we now live in a world where nearly all cars have safety features like seatbelts. More contemporary models have up to date safety features like airbags and reinforced frames to help mitigate injury in a car accident.
Trucks
While the professional freight hauling Mac truck is a less common vehicle on roads, these vehicles play an essential role in maintaining business and infrastructure. Carrying cargo is critical to society's operation. More oversized commercial vehicles capable of bearing the load are crucial to this task.
However, trucks on streets and highways also bring a massive differential in physics with them. Trucks already have a lot of mass due to being bigger and heavier than other vehicles on the road. This is compounded by their ability to carry huge amounts of freight that add even more mass.
On the road, this means that a truck involved in an accident will literally plow through any opposition due to its superior size and mass. This also means trucks are not agile and are slow to both turn or respond to acceleration or braking attempts. Once trucks are in motion, they want to keep moving in whatever direction they're going. Therefore, an impact with a truck is often an order of magnitude far more severe for the other vehicles getting into such a confrontation.
Motorcycles
Finally, motorcycles are found in far greater abundance here in Florida than most other parts of the United States. Again, due to Florida's mild, warm, year-round weather, there's no need to bundle away motorcycles when the winter season arrives, so these vehicles are common throughout many Florida roads.
But where trucks are exceptionally durable when it comes to all road accidents, motorcycles are on the opposite end of the accident spectrum. Motorcycles are smaller, lighter, and less durable than other vehicles on the road. When this is combined with the mechanical inability to build in more safety features, such as airbags or seatbelts, it means riders and passengers on motorcycles are more likely to get injured—or even die—in vehicular accidents than either car or truck drivers.
Protect Yourself & Your Future
While accidents on the road happen, some are random and unavoidable, while others are not. Avoidable accidents are caused when people fail to exercise their "duty of care." This means that all drivers on the road are expected to act with a minimum standard of caution and responsibility toward themselves, their passengers, and others on the road. Failing to uphold the duty of care is known as negligence. If negligence causes an accident on the road, it can mean getting financially compensated for being an accident victim in court.
If you are the victim of negligence in a traffic accident, make sure you protect yourself and your welfare. Talk to an auto accident lawyer about what happened and see if you have any legal options. Don't end up paying on your own for what someone else did to you.
