Is human error the biggest culprit behind car crashes?

With more and more vehicles equipping automatic safety features, the market edges closer toward a world where vehicles operate themselves. Weather, animals and other unexpected road conditions may still remain in such a world, but would we be safer if the component of human error was removed?

The truth is that the vast majority of crashes are completely avoidable because human error is most often the culprit behind car crashes. At least one driver — if not more than one — makes a mistake that directly contributes to the crash.

Even the drivers who are involved often feel like the crashes are random. For instance, imagine a driver who sees a dog run into the road, swerves to avoid it and hits a car in the oncoming lanes. They’re probably going to blame the dog and the seemingly random nature of the event.

However, imagine that the driver was speeding when the dog ran out. If they had been going the speed limit, they could have stopped. That’s one human error. Plus, they swerved into the oncoming lanes, which is improper lane usage. That’s a second human error. They should have stopped or swerved to the right. Even in this seemingly random crash, it was actually caused by two human errors that compounded upon one another.

Those who get injured in these crashes need to know exactly who was responsible and how to seek compensation.

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