Car accidents happen daily and can significantly change the life of a person. Accidents occur without warnings and sometimes result in death. Everyday, unforeseen, innocent victims are killed in car accidents. It is important to note that anything can cause a car accident (Transport Canada par. 1).
The first cause of car accidents is impaired driving. Many drivers drive their cars while under the influence of drugs, making the road very dangerous for other innocent users. Drugs affect the decision making part of the brain, this includes the response time. Drugs include: cocaine, marijuana, alcohol, counter medication and other drugs.
The second cause of car accidents is the use of mobile phone while driving. When drivers are using cell phones, their attention is divided leading to lack of focus, causing sudden lane changing, severe increase or decrease of speed and likely fender splurge. It is critical to state that the use of mobile phones do not only endanger the lifes of drivers, but also other motorists and pedestrians (Robertson 40).
The third cause of car accidents can be attributed to aggressive drivers. Some drivers can actually drive stupidly or race, normally considered “sporty”.
Drivers moving at a high speed make them more vulnerable to crashing because high speed cars have high possibility to swerve harder within a short time leading to lose of control. Other general causes of car accidents include the presence of high numbers of vehicles and continuous expansion of road networks and increased number of emigrants from different parts of the world with different driving habits and cultures which are not similar to a given local driving requirements and conditions.
Effects
Car accidents cause both tangible and intangible effects to the economy because it has medical, social and economic effects on a person. Some of the tangible costs consist of: insurance costs, damage to car which include the repair and replacement cost and medical treatment which includes the resources used at the scene and pre-hospital care because some of the victims need long-term care due to the residual disabilities and administration costs.
Intangible costs consist of suffering, grief, pain and the danger of being involved in a car accident. In economical terms the cost of car accidents to the economy is usually estimated to be 3% of the Gross Domestic Product of any country in the world.
The annual costs of car accidents to the economy are estimated to be billions of USD and it is more in countries that import medicines and vehicles. Car accidents have direct effects on the social and physical environment due to the medical burden or death. This makes family members to be financially vulnerable (Transport Canada par. 10).
Conclusion
Car accidents are unavoidable; however, many causes of these disastrous occurrences can be preventable. There should be a compulsory use of safety belts for all the drivers and passengers. Also, a firm punishment should be imposed to those violating traffic rules such as ignoring crossing signals, excess overspeeding and unsafe overtaking. Therefore, it is clear that errors and negligence are the major causes of accidents.
In addition other factors like poor road construction, poor road users and corrupt law enforcers also cause road accidents. Finally, more information is needed on the various factors that lead to car accidents in order to develop effective measures that can alleviate more accidents.
Works Cited
Robertson, McCormick, Injury Epidemiology. World Bank, New York: Oxford University Press, 1998. Print
Transport Canada: About Anti-lock Braking Systems (ABS) 2007. Web.