Whether you commute to and from work every day or only drive your car occasionally, you must think about your personal safety. After all, a serious collision may leave you with life-altering injuries. Even worse, both you and your passengers may die in a terrible crash.
With some defensive driving and a bit of knowledge, you can boost your odds of avoiding a motor vehicle accident. As such, you should know why car crashes tend to happen. While there are a seemingly endless number of ways to wreck a motor vehicle, some accidents are more common than others. Here are four of them:
- Rear-end collisions
Rear-end collisions occur when a vehicle smashes into the back of the car in front of it. Often due to either distracted driving, tailgating, speeding or inclement weather conditions, rear-end crashes can cause serious injuries, such as whiplash or bone fractures.
- Rollover accidents
With a rollover accident, a vehicle flips onto its roof. The vehicle may either land on its top or continue to roll, potentially doing so many times. Rollover accidents expose motorists and passengers to extreme gravitational forces. As such, these accidents often result in substantial injuries. If motorists are speeding, they unfortunately also have an increased risk of dying in a rollover crash.
- Side-impact crashes
A side-impact, T-bone or broadside collision occurs when one vehicle hits the side panel of another one. The severity of this type of crash usually depends on where the impact happens. Still, side-impact crashes can be exceedingly dangerous for young passengers and those who do not wear seat belts.
- Head-on impacts
Often fatal, head-on collisions happen when two vehicles hit their front ends together. This type of collision tends to occur on two-way streets when one vehicle crosses the center line.
Knowing how motor vehicle accidents usually occur is the first step to avoiding one altogether. Still, if a negligent driver injures you in one of the common types of car crashes, you must act quickly to recover completely and pursue just compensation.