Articles Posted in Car Accidents

Almost all motorists recognize the dangers associated with driving while distracted or drunk, but did you know that driving while emotionally distressed also significantly increases your risk of being in a motor vehicle collision? New studies confirm that persons driving while upset, sad or angry place themselves and other motorists at substantial risk.

According to a study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, motorists who are driving when they’re angry, sad or otherwise emotionally off-center increase their accident risk by ten fold. In fact, according to the study, the risks of driving in an emotionally distressed state are much higher than driving while distracted. The study found that driving while engaged in activities that caused the driver to take his or her eyes off of the road, like using a cell phone or texting, doubled the accident risk for motorists.

There is a reason why emotional driving may be even more dangerous than distracted driving and other types of dangerous behaviors. When a person is emotionally off kilter, they often fail to recognize how it may impact their ability to drive safely. In comparison, motorists who text while driving or use a cell phone while driving are usually aware that what they’re doing increases the risk of an accident. In other words, if you’re driving in an emotionally fatigued or overly excited state, you may not appreciate the need to slow down or be more cautious while driving.

The hype over self-driven cars continues to increase, even as the federal officials warn that automakers must innovate while keeping in mind concerns involving privacy and hacking.

Hackers recently proved that they were capable of hacking a car remotely, and operating it. In a daring stunt, they managed to seize control of a Jeep Cherokee, and operated it from the comfort of their living room. Cyber security concerns are even higher in the case of self-driven cars that are very vulnerable to such malicious practices. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) chief recently said that issues like privacy and hacking must be priorities, as automakers innovate further in the development of cars that will drive themselves.

NHTSA has assured the auto industry that it will share some of the vehicle-to-vehicle technology that self-driven cars would be based on. The government also wants a number of parties including software developers and telecommunications companies to work together to find solutions to cyber security threats and privacy breaches in these cars. The agency wants the auto industry to take safety lessons from the airline industry.

Even after a teenage driver has acquired a license, his or her driving skills may continue to be below that of older drivers.A recent study put a number of teenage motorists who had acquired a full license through a simulated driving test, and found that many of the teen drivers crashed in the task.

The teenagers went through the 35-minute driving assessment which included replications of the most common accident scenarios.Approximately four out of every 10 newly licensed drivers crashed in the test, and according to researchers, this suggests that they lacked the critical driving skills that they needed to stay safe while driving in a real-world environment.Data also showed that approximately 29% of the adult drivers crashed in the test, while among teen drivers, the crash rate was more than 49%.

This suggests that even after they obtain a full license, most teen motorists lack the critical driving abilities required to stay safe on the roads. Teenagers who had just obtained a license, the researchers found, were good at the basics, but lacked the ability to identify accident cues in their environment, and react immediately to such hazards. That placed them and their passengers at a high risk of being involved in a motor vehicle collision.