I was searching the web to find some interesting facts on auto injuries that I could share with our readers, and I came up with some very good stuff. For example, did you know that between midnight and 3am, about 75% of fatal crashes involve alcohol. Stay off the road during those times if you can. This next one seems to be common knowledge: males are twice as likely to cause car wrecks that females. Is it from aggressiveness / testosterone? With that said, people between ages 16 and 20 are more likely to be injured or killed in a car wreck that any other age group. Kids. Somebody please tell them that they really are not invincible! About 15 teenagers are killed in car wrecks each day. When teens drive with one other passenger, the risk of fatality doubles. That risk is 5 times greater with 2 or more passengers. Parents – doesn’t it scare you to think that your child is 5 times more likely to die behind the wheel when he or she is out with their friends?
Here’s some not-so-new news: Most car wrecks happen within just a few miles from home. I guess we are most wreckless when we are most familiar with our driving surroundings. And how about this one? Talking on your cell phone makes you 400% more likely to get into a car wreck. Get off the phone! It’s illegal in California to talk on the cell phone or text while driving (unless you’re talking hands-free). That should be the law in all 50 states. 1 in 4 car wrecks is caused by driving and cell phone usage.
I found an article that says in 2005, the US had 733 car accidents per hour. That’s an average of nearly 15 car wrecks per hour in each state. Texas is much larger than the average state, so it’s safe to assume that we had a much higher percentage of those wrecks. And now more people are texting and driving than ever. Those numbers are probably much higher. In 2008, it was reported that at any given moment, over 800,000 Americans were driving and texting or making cell phone calls resulting in nearly 6,000 deaths. That’s 16 deaths per day due to cell phone use while driving. In 2009, fatalities decreased to just under 5,500, but injuries resulting from driving distracted were nearly 450,000 people. That’s about 50 people per hour injured in car wrecks due to distracted driving. Texting while driving also makes you 6 times more likely to get into an auto accident than driving while intoxicated.
So. . . drive safe. Get off the phone, stop texting, don’t drink and drive. Get off the roads when you should otherwise be sleeping after midnight. Keep your teens out of the car with their friends. Just because you’re close to home, pay attention. Familiarity does not equal safety. Teenagers – YOU ARE NOT INVINCIBLE. Slow down and pay attention when you are driving – and if you have to have your friends in the car with you, tell them to sit there and shut up. Drive time is not play time.
And this last one is from Wikipedia: “Traffic collisions may result in injury, death, and property damage.” Please be careful.
Sources of information in this article:
http://www.infobarrel.com/10_Common_Facts_about_Car_Accidents
http://www.car-accidents.com/pages/stats.html
http://www.edgarsnyder.com/car-accident/cell-phone/statistics.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_collision
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