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Any time a driver is negligent or acts with the intent to cause harm, a serious car accident and devastating car accident injuries can result. However, there are some common reasons for car crashes that every driver and every passenger should know about.

Seven Possible Reasons for Your Car Accident

Whether you’ve been hurt on a city street, rural road or interstate highway in Wisconsin, it is important to consider the following possible causes of your crash:

Distracted Drivers

Any time a driver takes his or her eyes off the road, hands off the wheel or attention away from driving, that driver may be distracted. Cell phones are a common form of distraction for drivers, but other things such as eating, drinking, music, passengers and daydreaming can also be potentially deadly distractions.

Drunk Drivers

It is against the law for adults to drive with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08 percent or higher in Wisconsin. The BAC limits for drivers under age 21 and for those driving commercial vehicles is even lower. However, even people who are drinking and below the legal BAC limit may still have impaired driving skills.

Drowsy Drivers

Fatigued driving may cause more than 100,000 car crashes each year. A tired driver may be distracted, may drift into another lane, may have delayed judgment and response times or may fall asleep at the wheel and cause an accident.

Speeding

Each roadway has a designated speed limit for everyone’s safety. A driver who is speeding has less time to respond to what is happening around them, including other cars slowing down or changing lanes. The force of a collision can be more severe when a car is speeding and a difference of only 20 miles per hour can more the double the force of a crash.

Weather

Weather conditions such as fog, rain, ice and snow may impair a driver’s ability to see and make accidents more likely to happen. These conditions can also cause a driver to lose the ability to control the vehicle.

Complicated Roadways

Confusing intersections with signs that are missing, broken or not highly visible can make roads confusing and complicated to follow. This increases the risk of an accident as mistakes will more than likely be made while driving in those intersections.

Aggressive Drivers

Common traits of aggressive drivers include impatience, anger and a disregard for other drivers on the road. An aggressive driver can be a danger in many different ways, such as getting too close to the car he or she is following, ignoring right-of-way rules and disregarding traffic signs and signals.

Of course, any time a driver fails to act with reasonable care or violates a rule of the road, that driver can cause a catastrophic accident.

Why It’s Important to Know What Caused Your Car Accident

To recover damages for your accident injuries, you are going to have to prove that someone was legally responsible for causing your auto accident. Therefore, you are going to have to know why the accident happened.

The first steps in determining what caused your crash will occur at the scene of the accident. You can start the investigation by:

  • Taking pictures.

  • Writing down the names, contact information, driver’s license numbers and insurance information for all of the other drivers involved.

  • Noting and keeping the names and contact information for all passengers and witnesses to the crash.

  • Calling the police and having them conduct an initial accident investigation.

However, your investigation won’t end there. Instead, you may need additional evidence that can be obtained during the legal discovery phase of a Wisconsin car accident case. For more information on how to know what caused your car accident and what damages you may be entitled to pursuant to Wisconsin law, please read our free book, The Ultimate Guide for Automobile Accident Victims, and please start a live chat with us today.

Have You Been Injured in a Wisconsin, Illinois or Iowa Car Accident?

By knowing these common causes for car accidents, we hope it can help you drive defensively and be safer on the road. However, if you have been injured in a car accident, you should speak to an experienced car accident attorney as soon as possible. You can contact us online or call our office directly at 800-800-5678 to schedule your free consultation with one of our car accident attorneys.

Jill Erin Wellskopf
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Director of Marketing, Hupy and Abraham