Auto Accidents in the United States

Automobile accidents are very dangerous and may cause serious injury. No one wants to imagine being in any motor vehicle accident. Although some insurance industry publications try to minimize the impact, the truth about automobile accidents is disturbing:

• According to the National Safety Council, there are approximately 12 million automobile accidents every year.

• Approximately 2 million non-fatal, but disabling, injuries occur in automobile accidents every year.

• Approximately 10% of all automobile accident victims become disabled.

• Collisions occurring at speeds as low as 5 miles an hour can lead to significant cervical or neck injury. This is true even though there is little to no damage to the motor vehicles in a low speed collision.

• Even if an accident causes no broken bones, a victim may suffer "soft-tissue" injuries that last for months, or sometimes years. A study reported in the European Spine Journal indicated that 10% of accident victims experienced degenerative bone conditions during the first year after the auto accident.

Perhaps the most frightening prospect is a roll-over accident, and they are among the most dangerous of all motor vehicle accidents. In the United States, there were about 70,000 accidents involving rollovers of sport utility vehicle (SUV) in 2002. These crashes killed 2,000 Americans and injured thousands more.

Sometimes rollovers result from a collision between two or more vehicles. At other times, a rollover is a single vehicle accident. After a single-vehicle rollover, the driver may not realize that someone's negligence may have contributed to their accident. In fact, a rollover accident may be caused by factors like gross negligence in the production of tires, poor vehicle design, or road defects.

The serious nature of these crashes is clear. Rollovers account for 19% of the deaths in standard automobiles, 36% of the deaths in pick-up trucks, and 51% of all deaths in SUV accidents. Often the occupants of a vehicle are physically ejected during a rollover. A person who is in a rollover accident is extremely lucky, if he or she escapes serious injury. Anyone suffering serious injury should talk with an experienced auto accident lawyer.