(HealthNewsDigest.com) – The world is a scary place! The open road is no exception.
“Most car accidents occur when one driver makes a poor decision,” says Atlanta car accident lawyer Julian Sanders. “The legal definition of a poor choice is ‘negligence.’ This means that one person did not act with reasonable care, which resulted in someone else getting hurt.”
So how do you keep yourself from becoming that “someone else” that gets hurt if YOU are doing everything right on the road?
Simple: you drive defensively.
And there are plenty of reasons why you should.
Here are just 5 of the many, MANY reasons to start driving defensively in 2021.
1) Smart Phones
Each year more people around the world pick up a smart phone and get hooked to the power that comes with having a computer at your fingertips.
As we invite the internet deeper and deeper into our collective consciousness, we find ourselves trading convenience for autonomy. Imagine a day passing without checking your email or shooting off a quick text using your cellphone.
An entire DAY.
No way.
Safe to say we are all attached to the things, for better or for worse.
But that means another distraction on the road. When your entire life is stored on one little device, it’s hard not to heed the siren’s call of your notification chime.
This seems like a problem that can be solved with some self-control. That is a fair point! However, while you might be able to keep your itchy little fingers on the wheel, do you trust everyone ELSE to do the same?
Yeah.
Didn’t think so.
2) Drowsy Driving
Ever driven a little sleepy? No? Well, nearly half of Americans can NOT say the same. According to a study by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 45% of respondents admitted to getting behind the wheel when they were drowsy.
This epidemic of snoozy drivers has led to over three hundred thousand deaths a year. This is an alarming number, and it should concern you.
Drowsy driving is hard to catch and can take a turn for the worst very suddenly. Look out for drivers who are reacting sluggishly, jerking to and fro across a given lane, or those who seem to be stopping very suddenly when coming to a halt.
Accidents attributed to drowsy driving are not always in the thick of late nights, either. They can easily take place very early in the morning or the afternoon. In fact, it is not unreasonable to assume that a driver working hours at odds with the general public might be sleepier than most.
Another source of drowsy drivers is truckers, who tend to drive long, lonely hours.
Speaking of which…
3) Trucks Merging
The three most common types of merging accidents involving trucks in the United States occurred when a truck was merging into a passenger vehicle going straight.
These types of accidents are probably why trucks are responsible for only 7% of miles driven but 13% of road fatalities.
To protect yourself and your family, you must not only be vigilant about monitoring other passenger cars, but trucks as well.
Don’t get me wrong: truckers are great people. I know a ton! They take their jobs seriously, and they take the lives of their fellow drivers seriously, too.
You just can’t be too careful on the road.
4) Drag Racing
As the pandemic continues to quarantine people away from one another and their usual stomping grounds, people are getting restless, and, unfortunately, they are getting reckless, too.
Everyone is looking for new ways to interact and have fun, and I get it. Who doesn’t want to have fun?! But some young people are taking it to extremes, going as far to drag race on public streets.
You read that right.
You have to watch out for speed demons drag racing one another these days. What is the world coming to?
(Has 2020 been such a wild ride, or what?)
5) Complacency
Like with smart phones, GPS (or global positioning system) is a burgeoning technology that only continues to improve. While newer iterations of GPS tech now come conveniently bundled in our smartphone, some cars offer GPS built directly into the vehicle itself.
Backup cameras, too, have become a fixture in the modern vehicle.
But is this all good news?
The truth is, while these technologies have made our lives infinitely more convenient, they have robbed us of innumerable opportunities to sharpen our skills.
The GPS and backup cameras installed in our vehicles do have the power to improve our safety by making up for human error. There is no denying this.
However, these technologies also keep us from getting better in our own right. The true dangers of backup cameras and GPS and our smart phones is not the potential they have to distract us, but the potential they have to make us incapable of fending for ourselves.