No matter where you go, you’ll likely see some cars or trucks in the parking lot. These days, it’s necessary to have a car to get just about anywhere. However, drivers have to be especially careful when driving to avoid accidents.
Even though automobiles have been around for quite some time, there are still some things we don’t know about cars. What is more staggering is that today’s cars are chock-full of safety technologies and systems, navigating and parking for us, keeping the lane for us, and even avoiding accidents in our stead. And yet, car wrecks still occur. So let’s see some factors that still contribute to crashes so we can learn about these situations to avoid accidents in the future.
Facts About Cars, Trucks, and Accidents
Market data from IHS Automotive reveals that there are over 253 million cars in the US. Abut half of these vehicles are on the highways and roads every day. Since so many people operate automobiles every day, many of them are not fully alert while driving, which increases the chances of accidents. Unfortunately, around 100 Americans will die each day due to a traffic accident.
There have been recent improvements in the number of car wrecks that take place in the US. Fatal car crashes increased significantly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and there were over 54,500 fatalities in 1972. Stricter regulation and technological improvements led to a decrease in accidents – there were around 40,000 car accident deaths every year in the 1990s. Car wreck-related fatalities dropped to 33,883 in 2009, but there was another spike in 2015 when the death toll reached over 40,000.
It seems that no matter how much safety technology carmakers put in their vehicles, distracted driving, negligence, fatigue, and other factors are still taking their toll on human lives.