Every year, there are millions of car accidents. Around 40,000 people lose their lives annually. Hundreds of thousands suffer injuries, many of which are so serious that they will change the course of their lives.
It feels daunting when you look at these statistics and just consider the sheer amount of accidents in the United States. Is there ever going to be some sort of hypothetical future where we won’t have to worry about this? Are we on course to ever have accident-free roads? Much has been done to get the accident rates down over the years, but does that mean driving will ever be safe?
It’s unlikely, although the technology is helping
It seems impossible to get people to drive so perfectly that they don’t crash, so much of the focus in regards to safety is simply on using technology. There are more monitoring systems on new cars than there ever have been in the past. They can watch the traffic ahead of you or in your blind spots. Your car can hit the brakes if it senses that an accident may happen ahead of you. It can alert you if you drift out of your lane. People are no longer reliant on their own senses, and this technology can help to reduce accident rates.
The most extreme example of this is automated driving. Autonomous cars are not yet to the point where they are in wide use, but human error leads to most car accidents, so self-driving cars will theoretically at least reduce crash levels. However, there are still many hurdles to go, even in this area. The fact that everyone won’t have switched to self-driving cars is still a problem, so you’re still going to have human drivers sharing the road.
As long as accidents continue to be so common, it’s critical for the injured to know how to seek compensation for their losses.
