Every year as many as 2.5 million intersection accidents are reported by The Federal Highway Administration. In most of these crashes, at least one vehicle is making a turn, usually a left turn.
Nationally, about 40 percent of all crashes occur at intersections. It’s the second largest category of accidents after rear-end collisions.
Although the traffic is usually traveling at a lower speed at intersections, meaning injuries from intersection wreck are likely to be less serious than a head-on collision, the consequences of these wrecks can be grave.
Approximately 50 percent of serious collisions occur at intersections. About one in five of all fatal collisions occur at intersections.
The Causes of Intersection Accidents
According to a 2010 report by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, about 36 percent of 2.1 million crashes in 2008 studied by the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey (NMVCCS), were intersection crashes.
Of these 756,570 intersection-related crashes which were caused by drivers the main reasons were:
- Inadequate surveillance (44 percent of intersection-related crashes).
- The false assumption of another’s actions (8.4 percent)
- Turning with an obstructed view (7.8 percent)
- Making an illegal maneuver (6.8 percent)
- Being internally distracted (5.7 percent)
- Misjudging the speed of another driver or the gap (5.5 percent)
These factors were somewhat different from the critical reasons given for non-intersection related crashes which were dominated by aggressive driving, driving too fast for conditions and driver error.
Every year, red light runners cause intersection accidents. These are often serious because they can involve greater speeds. Every year, about 700-800 people die in red light runner crashes.
We read about intersection accidents with an appalling regularity. In April, four students from Langston Hughes High School were killed in an intersection wreck in South Fulton County. Their Lincoln Navigator collided with a semi-tractor trailer at the Butner Road/Ridge Road intersection with Campbellton-Fairburn Road.
Improvements can be made at many intersections to reduce crashes such as installing red light cameras and left turn filter lanes. But drivers also need to exercise more care and not be in a rush to get through an intersection.
If you have been hurt in an intersection crash due to the fault of another driver, you should call our Atlanta area car accident injury lawyer at (404) 913-1529.