Car crashes happen every day. Luckily, most of these are not fatal car accidents or even particularly dangerous accidents. Still, all types of car accidents can do serious damage to your vehicle and cause lasting, life-changing injuries.
In order to better protect you and your family from serious car crashes, it is important to know what types of crashes are most common, so that you can learn how to avoid them. The following are the five most common types of car accidents and advice on how to best avoid them. It is important to remember that if you are ever involved in one of these crashes, then you should contact a Chicago car accident lawyer as soon as possible by calling (312) 236-2900.
When you follow too closely behind another car or the other driver suddenly stops, you may end up rear-ending the other car. These crashes, while usually not too damaging, are easily the most common. The best way to prevent them is to keep a safe following distance between you and other cars at all times. Tailgating, even in slow traffic, only puts you and others at risk.
Single vehicle crashes happen often as well, and crashes involving teen drivers are quite common. These types of crashes include running off the road, slipping on ice and spinning out of control, hitting stationary objects, and many other situations. Generally, overcorrecting a small mistake or braking too hard to avoid an obstacle are the most common root causes of these accidents.
While the variety of these types of crashes makes it difficult to give advice on how to avoid all single car accidents, there are two important actions you can take to avoid single car crashes: avoid reckless driving and dangerous speeds that make reacting to obstacles safely more difficult and take extra care in inclement weather, as ice, snow, and rain make controlling your vehicle more challenging. You might be wondering if there are personal injury claims in single vehicle car accidents. That’s a good question, and you can learn about third-party liability here.
Collisions at an intersection where traffic crosses are most often called T-bone accidents. These are usually caused by a driver running a red light or stop sign or taking a left turn without yielding to oncoming traffic.
Since most T-bone crashes are caused by the negligence of a driver, the best way to avoid these crashes is to follow traffic laws. Unfortunately, not everyone is responsible about this. In order to prevent being a victim of another person’s poor driving, take extra caution when driving through intersections and watch out for any signs that the other driver is distracted and not paying attention.
Merging cars (and cars around the merging vehicle) are at risk of being sideswiped. These types of car crashes generally caused by a failure of the merging driver to check all blind spots. In order to void these crashes, always look around you and check blind spots before changing lanes. Also, don’t speed, especially in areas where other drivers commonly will be merging. You may make it more difficult for them to properly see you when checking in blind spots.
Low speed impact crashes may not be the worst, but they can still do damage. These fender-benders, bumps, parking lot collisions, and other crashes under the speed of ten miles per hour can often happen in parking lots and residential areas, risking pedestrian lives. You must always be on the lookout for pedestrians in neighborhoods and other common pedestrian areas, and you should never speed. Even at low speeds, pedestrian accidents can result in serious injury. Since many low speed crashes happen while drivers are backing up, take extra care to look out for other drivers before reversing.
Unfortunately, even with the best preventative measures we can’t always protect ourselves from accidents. When people drive recklessly, they may be liable for the damages caused by your accident. An experienced attorney can help you hold them responsible. Our car accident attorneys serve clients throughout the Chicago area, including Aurora, Elgin, Hinsdale, Joliet, Naperville, and Waukegan. If you or a family member has been in any of these common types of accidents caused by a negligent driver, you may be eligible for compensation. Call Staver Accident Injury Lawyers, P.C. today at (312) 236-2900 or contact us online for a free consultation with one of our experienced lawyers for car accidents on your particular case to find out how we can help.
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