Unforeseen circumstances may occur anytime, anywhere, and with anyone. Driver’s fault, critical weather, defective road conditions, health emergency, or vehicle failure are some of the causes of accidents. They occur almost daily, on roads, highways, bridges, or underpasses, to name a few.
Unfortunately, these accidents are the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and claim over 136,000 lives annually. Every five seconds, a crash occurs, and every 12 minutes, death gets reported due to a motor vehicle crash. Accidents have severe psychological, physical, and emotional effects, and even massive financial loss on the victims. They bear the brunt of all these damages while trying to recover from the traumatic incident.
In such cases, support from a professional legal expert is as essential as the recovery since accidents entail health and money jeopardies that become difficult to reclaim later on. The emergence of a specialist guides the victims meticulously about the scenario, as the victims do not have any prior knowledge or expertise in the legal procedures. They can help sufferers obtain compensation from the other party and recover any losses incurred due to the accident.
Healthcare lawyers have a profound understanding of the policy examination and legal fulfilling of services to work with the healthcare providers, patients, and the judicial system to provide people with proper care. Notably, a car accident lawyer can help recover medical funds, lost earnings, repair charges, and even extend emotional support to the affected, paving the way to better rehabilitation. Accidents cost employers $60 billion every year that constitutes the healthcare, legal expenses, disability insurance, and repair charges, to name a few. However, a massive tragedy is that these crashes that cost billions are almost preventable, only if we consider a few factors and take some measures, timely.
Here are some of the things you need to consider to mitigate your vehicle crash risk.
- SPREAD AWARENESS OF THE DIRE CONSEQUENCES
Companies need to educate their employees regarding the extent of grievous loss that these tragic accidents can cause and highlight the considerable dire impact on their performance and personal life. An accident costs increased insurance expenses, vehicle downtime, employee sick leaves, loss of productivity, or damaged stock but have more profound, irreparable, emotional, and mental repercussions.
- TAKE DEFENSIVE DRIVING COURSE
Drivers should always use a balanced, calm approach while driving, as things can get messy. Some drivers become aggressive in times of obstacles like bad weather, mechanical faults, landslides, to name a few. They often drive fast, overtake cars, and don’t consider the surrounding conditions that can affect their vehicle or risk their lives. In such cases, drivers should stop at a station, control their emotions, and make themselves calm.
Such people should take defensive driving courses and aim to take a defensive approach while using a vehicle since it is the ideal way to avoid accidents. The defensive technique provides comprehensive knowledge and educates the drivers of proper techniques to prevent accidents. It leads to reduced fines that a driver may get over road violations and a revision of the driving lesson which the drivers may have forgotten. Thus, significantly help to prevent future incidents of any violations. Some insurance companies also contribute to the course’s payment while some are State-sponsored, as the governments encourage people to take a defensive driving course.
- FORMULATE A ROAD RISK POLICY
Companies whose employees use vehicles for the business purpose should have formulated a road risk policy. This policy should be provided to them through a proper induction so that the cars and the drivers can get analyzed for a smooth, unaltered, unaffected ride. Moreover, with this policy, employees would have a clear idea of the legalities that need the adequate implementation to avoid crash risk. These include personal responsibilities, cellphone distraction, drugs and drinking, driver behavior, route planning, road conditions, health and wellbeing, and emergency procedures. Moreover, the companies should assess the employee’s medical, physical, emotional, and legal capability to drive.
- CREATE BENCHMARK FOR FLEETS
The Australia Fleet Management Association (ACMA) created a benchmark system for companies to analyze their employees driving patterns, fleet management, and efforts to reduce crash risk. Using this system, the companies can compare their employees’ performance in this regard and determine which of the accident reduction strategies work well for them. Subsequently, the staff can have monthly meetings to share their best practices, ideas, and techniques to avoid accidents so that more people can learn and accept responsibility.
Moreover, in case of an accident, Fleet Accident Management Software can extract valuable information regarding the situation to audit and find the real cause of accidents. Therefore, accidents caused due to breaking the rules or employee’s negligence would get caught and dealt with strictly. This way, other employees will be careful of regulations and the policy set by the company management.
- AVOID DRIVING UNDER INFLUENCE
Drivers need to learn one prime rule before they come on the roads that are zero substance abuse while driving. It must get strictly followed to mitigate any crash risks since people who drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol increase an accident’s peril.
These substances deviate the drivers’ attention as he feels dizzy and loses his ability to think clearly, which causes fatal accidents. Therefore, whenever you are going to a party where you plan to get drunk, it is always better to hire a ride service or a driver for your safety. It is not only alcohol that causes people to function inappropriately but also the drugs, whether legal or illegal, can also result in attention deficit.
CONCLUSION
In a nutshell, accidents are almost entirely avoidable for people who want to. Several factors are in question and a few other measures that can contribute to mitigating the crash risk. From taking defensive driving courses to formulating a road risk policy, you can make your own choice and try to reduce the chances of the irreparable damages that can be caused by such accidents. You can read more here about how you can file your personal injury case in the court of law. If only each one of us tries to play our role responsibly, we might as well eliminate the crash cases.
