Fatal Car Accidents Spike in Alabama
Despite fewer drivers on the roads and fewer injuries per accident, fatal crashes in Alabama increased by 26 percent over the three years from 2020 through 2022, according to a new analysis by UAB researchers. Troopers say one of the worst parts of their job is responding to fatal accidents. What’s particularly heartbreaking is seeing a loss of life that could have been prevented. Many deadly accidents, troopers say, involve poor driving habits, including speeding, distracted driving, driving under the influence, and not wearing a seat belt.
The Four Deadly Don’ts
After responding to a preventable fatality, troopers then get the gut wrenching task of having to call the victim’s family members to notify them of their loss. Let’s reduce the number of those calls by shoring up on the following unsafe driving habits.
Speeding – More than 12,000 deaths — 29% of all crash fatalities — occurred in speed-related crashes in 2022. That’s right, over a quarter of all crashes involved at least one vehicle that was going over the posted speed limit.This is an easy one to solve: obey the speed limit. Whatever time you gain in speeding will amount to maybe a few minutes, if you’re lucky. If you’re not as lucky, you may cause an accident that ends up costing you big. In the most horrible of circumstances, your quest to get somewhere a minute or two sooner could end up taking a life.
Distracted Driving – Younger drivers are notorious for texting or playing with their smartphones while behind the wheel. Distracted driving is a significant concern among young drivers, including those aged 18-24. We can’t lay all the blame for this deadly driving habit entirely on teens and young adults though. 3,308 lives were lost in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2022 and approximately 32,000+ people have died in crashes involving distracted drivers from 2013-2022, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Distracted driving can be solved simply: put the phone away when driving. Let a passenger take your call or perform a Yelp search or answer a text. If you need to use your phone and are driving alone, then do the smart thing: pull over. It doesn’t take long to find a safe spot and stop the car to use your phone. Taking a minute to do so is surely worth the effort to avoid becoming another fatal driving statistic.
Driving Under the Influence – We’ve seen the public service announcements against it. We’ve read the articles about its victims. We’ve studied its dangers in driver’s education classes. Still, far too many of us continue to put the keys in the ignition and take off after we’ve been drinking alcohol. A sobering statistic: alcohol-impaired driving fatalities accounted for over 30% of total fatalities in 2021, with 13,384 people killed in crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers. Again, this habit can easily be avoided. Make plans in advance if you plan on drinking outside your home or beyond walking distance to it. You have a lot of options to get you home safely. Call a sober friend to drive you. Take mass transportation. Jump in a cab or ride-share car. Crash at a friend’s place. Whatever you choose to do, it is well worth the money to not seriously harm – or even kill – yourself or someone else.
Not Buckling Up – According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), seat belts reduce serious injuries and fatalities by about half. In other words, not buckling up means you are twice as likely to sustain catastrophic injuries or die in an accident.How long does it take to pull the safety belt across your body and fasten it? Two seconds?You see what we’re getting at. The amount of time to fasten up is so clearly worth the benefit of reducing your risk of debilitating injury or death by half, it’s silly not to do it. And yet so many of us continue to drive without our seat belts in place.
Teen fatalities: according to the CDC, among teen drivers and passengers 16–19 years of age who were killed in car crashes in 2020, 56% were not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash.
Don’t become another victim. Buckle up and encourage your loved ones to do the same.We don’t want car accident fatalities to continue to rise. Let’s do everything we can to stay safe each time we are in the car.
