If you've ever been involved in a road accident you will know how truly awful the whole experience can be. Pain, injury, and sometimes death of driver or passengers can be distressing on all levels whether that's physical, mental, or both depending the severity of the accident. The problem with auto accidents is exactly that.
They're accidents! They didn't have to happen. Having said that, they do happen, and they will continue to happen despite ourselves, but we are responsible for minimizing that risk to the best of our abilities. Many of us have had accidents simply because we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Someone or some incident occurred precisely as the spot we happened to be in at a particular moment in time, and often through no fault of our own. It's crucial to have auto insurance cover whether we were the cause of the calamity or not. Don't you just hate statistics sometimes, especially when they are referring to doom and gloom? But statistically, the majority of us will either cause or be involved in an auto accident at some point during our lifetime. It is said that on average, people are caught up in an auto accident every 7 years.
That doesn't mean you will of course, it's just a general statistic as some folks have more, some have less, and there are those lucky ones that never have any. Older folks pick up many bad driving habits over the years, but even so, they are more sensible and traffic savvy than the young showoffs fresh out of driving school. Most accidents are caused by speeding, driving under the influence, or simply through lack of experience.
Therefore, the key to safe driving has to be knowledge safety, and experience. Sure, most folks like the adrenaline rush that comes with a bit of speed, but there are times and places for such motoring, and built up areas with lots of road congestion is not one of them. There is also something about being behind a wheel that turns normal everyday folks into motoring monsters. There has been a lot of research into this, and one of the conclusions was this: We can see the vehicle, but quite often we can't see the driver or maybe just a silhouette at best! It's this faceless interaction on the roads that takes the human element out of driving, and this is why there is so much horn honking, fist waving, and light flashing agro on the roads. If you think about it, when you're walking along the sidewalk and another pedestrian cuts in front of you, there is no shouting and swearing, or threats of violence.
No, one of the walkers will apologize and the other will most likely accept this request for forgiveness, as they then continue on their merry way. Why, because they made eye contact and saw the human not the machine, and most of us are pretty polite to our fellows when in direct contact. Motorcycles, or donor bikes as they are called in the UK, are quite a hazard to many motorists because they are not always easy to see. However, most modern motorcycles these days have the headlight on during daylight hours, making them easier to spot. In fact, most new models have this light come on at startup and it's not possible to turn it off. Remember this simple rule when driving your vehicle, especially when pulling away or turning: Think Once! Think Twice! Think Bike! Motorcyclists are 11 times more likely to die in a road accident then those in automobiles.
I had a terrible bike accident in 1979 which put me in hospital for 5 months and off work for almost 2 years. I was young, I was foolish, I was showing off, and I was riding far too fast when the car dragged me under its front fender for 90 meters. I'm one of the lucky one as I'm here to tell the tale, but many are not so fortunate. Touch wood, I've never had an accident since and a lot of that is down to careful driving. Have a safe journey!.
Gary Tooth is a proficient writer for Keeping Cars dot com where he has articles on Radio Controlled Cars and Honda Civic Recalls. He also has other 'Auto' related pieces on the site.
