Drinking and Driving: Effects
In the United States, 1 person dies due to drinking and driving every 48 minutes! Drunk driving is an expensive affair for countries because $ 51 Billion are lost due to alcohol related crashes annually. So before getting behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol, one must either designate a non drinker to be the driver or get a ride home in a taxi or someone else’s car.
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Top accidents in top destinations
The ten most safe countries in the world are Cyprus, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand, Norway, Singapore and Switzerland whereas the ten most accident prone countries are Belarus, France, Finland, Moldova, Hungary, Lithuania, Ukraine, Russia, Latvia and Estonia.
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The top accident causing reasons include food poisoning incidents, hurricane related accidents, Tsunami related accidents, transport accidents, Fire accidents and other natural disasters.
Texting while driving
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In the year 2011, 23% of the auto collisions were caused due to the involvement of cell phone usage which amounts to about 1.3 million crashes. Text messaging makes a crash 23 times more likely during driving. What is more surprising to know is that 77% of young adults are confident that they can drive safely while texting while 55% of them think that it is easy to text while driving.
How to survive a crash
The three things that can be done to minimize the effects of a car crash are:
- Adjust the head rest so that it touches your head and not your neck.
- Sit atleast 6 inches behind the steering wheel.
- Always wear the seat belt.
Statistics of crashes by young drivers
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The reasons why young male drivers have higher crash rates than young female drivers is because they tend to take higher risks. It is a fact that one in five new drivers has a crash within 6 months of passing the driving test. The male drivers who are aged under 21 are 10 times more likely to have a car accident than those aged 35 years or above.
Car accidents Statistics
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Worldwide, 1.2 million people die in car accidents every year. Out of the 121599 accidental deaths in the US in 2011, 33963 deaths were accidental car deaths. It is shocking to know that in the United States, the number 1 cause of death for teenagers is car crashes.
More car accident statistics
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The major causes of motor vehicles accidents are excessive speeds, Driver distractions and alcohol intoxication. Women are less likely to cause fatal drunk driving than their male counterparts.
Truck accidents and dangers attached to them
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5061 trucks are involved in fatal accidents every year whereas 361 pedestrians and 87 cyclists are killed in traffic accidents that involve trucks. 84.7 % of the fatal truck accidents happened in normal weather conditions while failure to stay in lane was the most common factor which contributed to fatal truck accidents.
The dangers of driving
Men account for 76% of all the road deaths while car users account for 70 % of the road fatalities which is followed by pedestrians at 12 %. The most dangerous road in the UK is A537 though the peak district while the most dangerous road in the world is the North Yungas road in Bolivia.
How dangerous are motorcycles
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4309 motorcycles were involved in fatal accidents in the year 2010 which in comparison to 22263 fatal car accidents is a small number. 37 % motorcycle accidents are caused due to excessive speeding whereas 1 in 3 motorcycle accidents is caused due to alcohol influence.
Evolution of auto safety
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Some of the auto safety equipments and ideas that have been installed in vehicles are safer dashboards, child safety seats, airbags and side impact protection system, seat belts and Driver’s education.