The one thing that practically everyone can agree on these days is that the number of serious car accidents is increasing throughout the country. Even if fewer cars are on the road, the people still driving pay less attention to traffic laws and cause more severe and fatal injuries.

The pandemic accentuated a trend that had already been happening beforehand. Nearly every metric of traffic accidents has gotten worse since ten years ago. For car accidents and pedestrian fatalities, things have been getting progressively worse every year.

There are many causes of car accidents. Sometimes, a driver just had a bad day and made a careless mistake behind the wheel. Other times, the driver is consciously reckless and puts their selfishness in front of your well-being and safety. Either way, you do not have to bear the costs of someone else’s mistake. If you can prove they caused your car accident injuries, you can make them pay for your total damages. The first step is to hire an experienced car accident lawyer to represent you.

Here are some of the common causes of car accidents:

Distracted Driving

Distracted driving has been a severe issue for as long as there have been cars. If a driver has something else they want to do behind the wheel, they may do it if given a chance. In the past, eating or conversing with a passenger might have distracted people.

The advent of smartphones has changed everything for the worse. Now, drivers have something in their hands that can draw their attention anytime. Tough laws have done little to stem this scourge. In the time it takes for a driver to look down at a text when they are going 55 miles per hour, their car can travel the length of a football field.

According to the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, 3,142 people lost their lives in distracted driving accidents in 2020. This is slightly under 10 percent of the total car accident fatalities in the country. Teens, the most inexperienced drivers of all, are the most likely to text and drive.

Motorists do not need their phones in their hands. If they look down at their phone for a split second, they risk a severe accident.

Inexperience

Driving on highways and city streets takes a certain amount of experience. Drivers get better the more time they have behind the wheel and the more situations they experience. Driving a car takes judgment that comes from experience. New drivers may be unable to identify hazards because they have not seen them before. Unsupervised teen drivers are even more dangerous when they have other passengers in the car with them.

Drivers aged 16 to 19 have a crash rate that is four times higher than the general population. The accident rate is the highest when the driver is in their first 12 months, and it decreases as they gain more experience. The same inexperienced drivers are more likely to make riskier choices behind the wheel, which can include texting and speeding.

Inclement Weather

If a driver chooses to be on the roads during inclement weather, they have the legal responsibility to travel at a safe speed. They must be cautious and act reasonably under the circumstances. Stormy weather, including snow, rain, and ice, is not an excuse for a car accident, and the driver will still be responsible. They cannot simply blame the weather for what happened.

The speed limit is the maximum allowable speed. In certain circumstances, you must travel slower than the speed limit to act reasonably. For example, you will not want to travel 55 miles per hour on a highway in the snow and ice.

Fatigued Driving

Drivers often get behind the wheel when they are better off staying at home and resting. Some studies show that a tired driver is every bit as dangerous as a drunk driver. The problem is that, while everyone knows that drunk driving is illegal, there is no law per se against fatigued driving.

The statistics about fatigued driving seem dire. The Centers for Disease Control report that one in every 25 drivers admits to falling asleep behind the wheel in the past 30 days. Fatigued driving is not just about drivers who nod off.

Extremely tired drivers will exhibit:

• Poor decision making
• Reduced reflexes
• Zoning out for a brief time, even if they are awake
• Lapses in concentration
• An inability to keep their eyes fully open

One study says that a driver who gets behind the wheel after not having slept for 20 hours is functionally impaired the same way as a motorist who is driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08, which is the legal limit. The effects get even worse when the driver has gone longer without sleep.

Reckless Driving

Numerous accounts have detailed a steep increase in reckless driving since the pandemic’s start. Motorists have gotten used to fewer drivers and have adopted far more dangerous driving habits. These habits have persisted, even as people return to the streets. In the early days of the pandemic, police officers were more hesitant to pull drivers over because they did not want to expose themselves to COVID-19, and motorists now have it ingrained in their psyche that they can do more dangerous things.

Reckless driving is a larger category of accidents that can include any behavior that shows an extreme indifference to the risks and the safety of others. It can consist of drunk and distracted driving. Reckless driving can also include excessive speeding. Reckless driving puts others at risk because the driver is more likely to lose control of their car or cut into another’s lane.

Reckless driving can include:

• Tailgating
• Racing
• Weaving in and out of traffic
• Road rage

Drunk Driving

Alcohol is a factor in roughly 30 percent of road fatalities each year. Even though there are strict laws against impaired driving, it does not stop many motorists from getting behind the wheel when they have had too much to drink.

Alcohol makes drivers far more likely to have a car accident because:

• Alcohol acts on the part of the brain that controls risk-taking and inhibitions, meaning that people will be more likely to take chances and risks after they have been drinking.
• Drivers lose their ability to focus when they are under the influence of alcohol.
• Drivers lose their reflexes because alcohol makes things seem slower and delays their response.
• Drunk motorists are far more likely to attempt dangerous maneuvers and speed.

The fact that a court has criminally charged a driver with DWI does not keep you from getting a financial settlement for your car accident injuries. The driver is still liable to you civilly, and their insurance company will need to pay your damages up to the policy limit.

Poor Road Conditions

The shape of the nation’s highways has gone from bad to dire in recent years. It is part of the reason that Congress recently passed a large infrastructure bill. The deteriorating roads lead to more work zones, as states spend their highway funds to fix their streets. Motorists often have poor driving habits in work zones because they fail to slow down and exercise the necessary caution.

In addition, deteriorating roads also cause more accidents on their own, as drivers struggle to avoid hazards. Drivers can blow a tire out on a pothole or lose control when driving over debris.

Finally, road conditions can also include highways that are more jammed with trucks than in the past.

Night Driving

Motorists have far less visibility at night, especially when driving in a rural area that is not well lit. The accident rate at night is more than twice what it is during the day, even with fewer cars on the road. Drivers can be unable to see hazards around them on the streets.

In addition, they may take more chances with fewer cars around them, and drivers may think fewer police officers enforce traffic laws. Finally, teen drivers are often on the roads in larger numbers at night and are the least experienced and most dangerous drivers.

Car Defects

In some cases, the driver may not do anything wrong, but the car itself may cause the accident. One example is defective brakes that prevent the driver from stopping in time to avoid an accident. Another product defect that injures drivers is a tire prone to blowing out, causing a driver to lose control of their car.

You may hold the following companies legally responsible in a product liability lawsuit:

• The car manufacturer
• The auto part manufacturer that made the defective part
• The dealer who sold you the car

To win a product liability lawsuit, you will need to show a car in your accident contained a:

• Design defect
• Manufacturing defect
• Marketing defect

Product liability lawsuits can result in large damage awards because the driver has suffered serious injuries and because the jury is angered by the company’s actions when they sell a defective product to consumers who trusted them.

Get Legal Help to Determine the Cause and Gather Evidence

While many people talk about the cause of a car accident, you can only know for sure until after your attorney can investigate the crash. In other words, you must take many steps between telling your lawyer what happened and filing the claim with the insurance company.

Never take on the insurance company on your own. They have teams of investigators, adjusters, and lawyers whose interests do not align with yours.

Your lawyer will need to perform their own accident investigation to establish the cause of the accident. They will begin with the police report and uncover any other evidence that can show that the other driver was at fault for the crash. You are not exactly in the best position to gather evidence yourself.

Not only may you not know how to investigate a crash, you may need to deal with your car accident injuries.

Proving What Happened in a Car Accident

To be in a position to get a settlement check, you must prove that another driver was negligent. Any of the actions described above will be considered negligence or even recklessness. Either way, the actions will fall short of what a reasonable person will expect of the driver under the circumstances. Negligence means that another driver has acted unreasonably. You have the burden of proof to show negligence, and if you fail to meet it, you may not recover financial compensation.

Evidence of negligence in your car accident case may include:

• Eyewitness testimony from people who saw the crash
• The police accident report (used for insurance claims but not in court cases)
• Dashcam or traffic camera footage
• Pictures of the scene of the accident
• The wreckage of the cars
• Testimony from an expert with experience in recreating accidents

Any one of these may be enough to prove what happened in the crash. However, without these, you may be unable to get financial compensation.

In addition, you must also recover enough financial compensation to pay for your injuries. It is far from a given that the insurance company will offer you enough money to fully compensate you right off the bat. Instead, that only happens after extensive negotiation with the insurance company.

You will either file a claim or a lawsuit to begin the process of getting a check. Either the insurance company will give it to you as part of a settlement agreement, or the jury will award it to you as damages. First, you will need to prove your damages because the burden of proof is on you. An experienced lawyer can calculate the exact value of your damages, then negotiate with the insurance company to obtain them.

Contact a Car Accident Attorney

If you have suffered an injury in an accident that was not your fault, call an attorney to help you file your accident claim. Contact an experienced car accident attorney who can protect your rights and interests as you pursue justice.