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Car Accidents Attorney

in Denver and Aurora, Colorado

Specific causes of car accidents are legion — probably as many as there are car accidents, since each accident is different. But the causes can be grouped into main categories:

• Driver behavior
• Road design and maintenance
• Vehicle design and maintenance
• Environmental factors

The term accident implies that nobody is responsible, that there was no cause. It was just fate. Just "an accident". But road safety studies show that there is always either:

• Someone responsible, or
• Something responsible which would not have been there had someone behaved less negligently

Some car accidents are even caused purposefully.

Driver behavior

Of the factors which impair the driver’s alertness, judgment, and speed of reflexes alcohol is the most prevalent. Other factors are:

• Fatigue — especially dangerous in big rig drivers
• Poor eyesight — especially dangerous in elderly people who may already have slower reflexes
• Distraction — especially prevalent in the form of cell phone use, but also with young children, dogs, and preoccupation with the car’s sound system
• Illegal drugs and prescription medications which cause drowsiness

To avoid a car accident, a driver needs to be aware of his vehicle’s size and capabilities, of the weather and lighting on the road, of road signage, and of the location and probably movements of other vehicles. Drivers also need to keep their emotions under some minimal control, to avoid speeding or aggressive driving.

When a driver is insufficiently alert for any reason, and therefore causes a car accident which harms someone else, that driver can be held liable on the grounds of negligence.

Road design and maintenance

Studies have shown that car accidents have decreased since about 1980, as more money and care has been given to road design and maintenance. Road design improvements over the years have included:

• Rest areas and service stations
• Roadside phones
• More and better road signs and pedestrian crossings
• Better-designed intersections
• Median strips to separate the two directions
• Road surface features such as the corrugations along the side of mountain roads which alert a driver who is drifting off the road
• Better drainage
• More turning lanes

When road maintenance workers are up ahead, signs are posted well in advance to warn approaching drivers. Easily-visible cones are placed miles ahead, directing traffic out of the lane being worked on. Speed limit signs are posted. So with these precautions taken, a driver cannot be unaware that workers will be on the road. All these improved features have made driving easier and safer and have prevented many car accidents.

Vehicle design and maintenance

Automobile manufactures, spurred on by media protests, books such as Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed, and lawsuits, have directed more resources into vehicle safety. New safety features include:

• Safer glass
• Anti-lock brakes
• Stronger vehicle bodies
• Airbags and better seatbelts
• Interiors without any sharp edges
• Headrests
• Smoother exterior contours to minimize harm to impacted pedestrians
• Lower centers of gravity in SUVs and other taller vehicles

There are new U.S. federal requirements for anti-rollover technology which will be in force by September, 2011.

Environmental factors

A well-designed and well-maintained road will help enormously with most weather and visibility factors, such as fog, snow, slick surfaces, steep grades and high winds. Other factors that can cause a car accident and might seem accidental or uncontrollable are:

• Debris on the road
• Signs that have been knocked down
• Malfunctioning traffic signals
• Animals running onto the road

However, when a car accident is investigated, negligence is more often than not found to have been at least partly responsible for apparently "accidental" factors. For instance, where did the road debris come from? From a poorly-loaded truck? Who knocked down the sign? Who is supposed to be maintaining the traffic signal? Maybe a deer darting in front of you or a bolt of lightning in your eyes might be exceptions.

If you have been hurt in a car accident, regardless of how it was caused, please contact us for a free case evaluation. Our car accident attorneys are here to help you.

 

Since 1983 the Brake Law Firm has successfully served clients throughout Denver and Boulder, Colorado in the areas of personal injury, medical malpractice, employment law, corporate law, insurance law, individual services, and wrongful death.
This website has been posted to the public for informational purposes only. No information within this site should be viewed as formal legal advise. If you have been involved in an , contact our car accident attorney today for a consultation.