Tag: Fatal Motor Vehicle Accidents

It is not New Years Eve or July 4th. According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), the most dangerous day of the year to drive is August 2. This calculation is based on the fact that the highest number of motor vehicle related deaths (505) on one specific day occurred on August 2 from 2012 to 2016. Similarly, August is also the most dangerous month of the year to drive with 15,914 fatalities during that same period of years. This will be a revelation for nearly everyone. Drivers

Continue reading August 2 is the most dangerous day for car wrecks…

We can’t control the weather. If we could, someone would turn off the rain spigot that has been drenching Montgomery County and the rest of the Washington metro area for the past week and bring an end to the precipitation. Lacking power to change meteorological facts doesn’t mean we are off the hook when it comes to safety in public. Drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists all have an extra duty of care when conditions make the going tough. Failure to do so can be seen as negligence and if disregard results in serious

Continue reading Obliviousness to wet weather can be cause of wrongful death…

Self-driving cars, once merely a futuristic fantasy, may soon appear on roadways nationwide. Several auto manufacturers are designing autonomous vehicles, test-driving them and even sending them out into the world. Self-driving cars are still rare on public roads, but may soon become widespread. The inception of self-driving cars has raised several important issues. Two weeks ago, a woman was struck and killed by a Volvo that was in autonomous mode. Her death raised issues of safety, insurance and responsibility. Who is responsible? One of the biggest issues surrounding self-driving cars

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As all drivers should know, distracted driving can be incredibly dangerous. Every year, about 27,000 people in the United States are injured or killed as a result of distracted driving. Drivers should also know that it is illegal in most states, and Maryland is no exception. Distracted driving can cover a wide range of activities, from texting to changing the radio dial. It may not be possible to outlaw every single activity that can contribute to distracted driving, but Maryland has made a concerted effort to reduce it wherever possible.

Continue reading What are Maryland’s laws—and penalties—for distracted driving?…

If you were to guess, which weather condition do you think is most deadly: Tornadoes, earthquakes, floods or snow? You may have guessed one of the first three, with good reason—those weather hazards are indeed dangerous. But snow is actually responsible for more deaths than all of the other conditions combined. That is because snow can lead to deadly traffic accidents—about 800 in the United States every year. There are many other facts that you should know about deadly winter accidents—so we have compiled a list of important statistics that you

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A researcher from the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) wants Americans to know that traffic crashes are the single most common cause of death among teens in the United States. That’s shocking, but it’s not inevitable. There are concrete steps that we can take to reduce teen crash rates. Those steps include education, engineering and enforcement. “Teen drivers, particularly novice ones, are overrepresented in U.S. fatality and injury crash statistics. The extraordinarily high teen crash rates are unacceptable and it is our core mission to save lives,” said the expert, who

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The data for 2016 is in from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and the news is somewhat troubling. While fatalities from distracted drivers dipped by 2.2 percent last year, overall traffic deaths rose for the second straight year. NHTSA cites other forms of risky behavior including speeding, failure to wear seatbelts and drunk driving as responsible for the increase. The safety agency estimates that 37, 461 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents last year. That’s the highest number since 2007. Fatal crashes increased by 5.6 percent over 2015,

Continue reading Distracted driving deaths down, fatalities up from risky driving…