Traffic collision
Car accidents are accidental damaging events that involve automobiles that someone is driving. Damage can occur to one or more autos, people, or structures. Car accidents--also called traffic accidents, auto accidents, road accidents, and motor vehicle accidents--are responsible for thousands of deaths and hundreds of thousands of disabilities each year. Worldwide, 1 million people die each year in car accidents (a 2002 statistic).
There is a debate about the use of the word accident in the context of motor-vehicle incidents. In many cases the incident is the result of carelessness or deliberate dangerous driving rather than of a circumstance that is totally beyond the control of one or more of those involved. Some road traffic safety authorities have started using alternative expressions such as car crashes in an attempt to educate and emphasise to drivers that these incidents are in most cases avoidable. Further, in Victoria (Australia), single-vehicle single-occupant road traffic crash fatalities are now counted in the state's suicide statistics as well as the road-toll statistics.
Car makers have been accused of making cars that go too fast, and praised for the safety measures (such as ABS) found in new models.
Despite an ever-increasing safety level, both for cars and for roads, the number of accidents seems to remain more or less constant. Several explanations have been proposed:
- The number of cars is increasing, leading to more congested traffic
- A safer car increases the perceived safety level, inducing the driver to go at higher speeds
- Some new types of cars are inherently unsafe (see for example SUV)
- More in-car tech toys exist today. These distract the driver from the road. These include: cell phones, TVs, pagers, computer notebooks, portable CD and DVD players, laptop computers, electronic games, computer games, GPS navigators, digital recorders, cam corders, radar detectors, and many other entertaiment and communication devices that plug into the cigarette lighter of the car or have their own batteries.
Car accidents can be divided into some major categories:
Collisions can occur with other automobiles, other vehicles such as bicycles or trucks, with pedestrians, and with stationary structures or objects, such as trees or road signs.
In a collision between two cars, the car with less mass (and its occupants) are likely to suffer the most consequences. See: crash incompatibility.
Rubbernecking
Rubbernecking is the behavior where drivers slow down their cars to watch what goes on near the highway. Events ranging from gruesome car accidents to a police car stopped on the shoulder can cause traffic jams on both side of the road, even if the roadway has been cleared.
Although caution is advised when there is unexpected activity on the side of a road, a car with a flat tire on the side of a highway often causes as much slow down as a real accident would due to rubbernecking. Traffic experts called this phenomenon phantom accidents. Often this behavior causes additional and sometimes more serious accidents among the rubberneckers.
Causes of accidents
Many factors result in car accidents, sometimes multiple causes in a single accident. Factors include the following:
- Driver distraction, including fiddling with technical devices as noted previously, talking with passengers, eating or grooming in the car, dealing with children or pets in the back seat, or attempting to retrieve dropped items.
- Driver impairment by alcohol or drugs, both legal and illegal. MAAD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is an organization made up of the families of the dead who were killed in car accidents caused by drunk drivers.
- Mechanical failure, including tires blowing out, brake failure, axle failure, steering mechanism failure.
- Road conditions, including foreign obstacles or substances on the road surface; rain, ice, or snow making the roads slick; road damage including pot holes.
- Speed exceeding safe conditions, such as the speed for which the road was designed, the road conditions, the speed of surrounding motorists, and so on.
Accident prevention
Although many accidents are caused by behavior that is difficult to alter, by mechanical failure, or by road conditions, some technical solutions are becoming more widely available to prevent accidents:
- Proximity monitors: These would automatically detect how close you were traveling to the car in front of you and automatically adjust your car's accelleration to prevent you from getting closer than you can safely stop at your current speed.
- Sobriety detectors: These locks prevent the ignition key from working if the driver breathes into one and is shown to have consumed alcohol.