People are injured in car accidents every years. They involve drunk drivers, and distracted drivers, and aggressive drivers, and people who are just plain negligent. They are people who have taken their eyes off the road or people who drive under the intoxicating influence of drugs or alcohol or people who are intent on driving recklessly.
Three million people are injured every year in car accidents on U.S. roads. And those three million people are injured in six million car accidents, meaning one out of every two car accidents involves the injury of someone, whether large or small. Although there are many causes of car accidents, the three most common are the ones mentioned above:
- Drunk driving
- Distracted driving
- Aggressive driving
To gain a better understanding of those three, here are some quick explanations. Know that your pain is important and that will be covered in the final section, where personal injury attorneys and finding the best lawyers is key to the discussion.
Drunk driving has been around since alcohol was consumed and cars were invented, though it’s always possible there were drunk horse riders and drunk buggy drivers far before the invention and operation of motor vehicles.
Drunk driving involves a driver who is impaired above the legal limit, which is typically .08 blood alcohol content or a little less than one drink. Alcohol becomes someone to be sluggish, have a visual impairment issue, unable to react quickly to certain factors, such as someone crossing the road, and general sensory impairment.
Drunk driving has been the advocacy point for many organizations for the past thirty years. Mothers Against Drunk Driving has made drunk driving their critical focus point, advocating for the cases of people who have been injured in drunk driving accidents and advocating for harsher punishments for those who have been arrested for drunk driving.
Drunk driving leads to the death of hundreds of thousands of people every year. There is a death caused by a drunk driver in a car accident every two minutes, which makes it the leading cause of car accident deaths in the United States.
Distracted driving is the second leading cause of car accidents in the United States and accounted for tens of thousands of deaths in 2015 alone. Distracted driving, which has gained presence in the national consciousness over the past few years, has become more prevalent as people use more electronic devices.
Distracted driving can be seen as one of three things: visually distracted, which is when a person takes their eyes off the road; generally distracted, when a person is not paying attention to the road when driving; and motor distracted, when a person takes their hands off the wheel.
Distracted driving has become such an ill that many PSAs and even wireless companies are focusing time on “texting and driving” which is a common problem that has led to several high profile court cases where people have been sentenced to time in jail.
Aggressive driving is fairly straightforward. A person may be speeding down the highway well past the speed limit. They may be weaving in and out of traffic. They may be tailgating or shouting at the other passerby. There may be road rage involved. Aggressive driving leads to the third most car accident deaths.
Of course, those people are considered “negligent” according to the court of law. Or that is the lawyer’s job to prove that they were negligent. If it is a personal injury case, the lawyer will be the one hired to fight for the damages of a person who has been injured.
Consider this: 52% of personal injury cases are related to motor vehicle accidents.
An auto accident attorney or a lawyer that fights for car accident rights can help win settlements in which a person who has been injured will receive money from the person who has been negligent. The best lawyers handle personal injury claims, file a personal injury lawsuit, and win personal injury settlements.
The best lawyers find a way to represent their clients interests while proving that the other driver has been negligent. Although this seems fairly easy when the other driver has been drunk, distracted, or aggressive, the best lawyers find a way to gain the best settlement on top of proving negligence.