Can Defensive Driving Prevent Car Accidents?

Can Defensive Driving Prevent Car Accidents?

Defensive driving is all about keeping drivers and passengers safe. This is a concept everyone learns (or should learn) during a driver's education course. Defensive driving involves anticipating possible hazards presented by other drivers and hazards on or around the roadway. Here, we want to review basic defensive driving techniques and discuss how they work to prevent motor vehicle accidents. 

What is Defensive Driving?

Defensive driving is a set of various driving skills that can help increase safety on the roadway. These are preventative measures that drivers take to help them anticipate any careless or negligent actions of other drivers. Some of the most common defensive driving techniques include:

• Never operating above the speed limit or too fast for conditions
• Remaining sober
• Minimizing all distractions, including texting and talking on the phone
• Continuously monitoring surroundings, including looking in the mirrors and checking blind spots
• Maintaining a safe following distance from vehicles
• Observing any forthcoming roadway hazards
• Passing other drivers with care
• Remaining calm on the roadway to avoid getting mad or road rage
• Moving over to let speeding drivers pass
• Adjusting driving tactics when there is inclement weather
• Ensuring the vehicle is adequately maintained and working properly

In addition to increasing overall roadway safety with defensive driving techniques, these practices can also help drivers save money. Many insurance carriers have monitoring programs that examine a driver's driving behavior and offer discounts for those who they believe to operate safely on a regular basis. 

How Defensive Driving Prevents Accidents

Information presented by the Arizona Department of Transportation shows that there were nearly 120,000 vehicle accidents during the most recent reporting year on file and that more than 52,000 individuals sustained injuries. Unfortunately, 1,294 individuals lost their lives that year on Arizona roadways.

Defensive driving can absolutely prevent accidents, mainly due to the increased awareness that defensive driving tactics allow for. Phoenix personal injury lawyers with experience handling car accident injury cases know the benefits of practicing defensive driving. Drivers who actively practice defensive driving techniques are much less likely to get involved in an accident themselves and more likely to avoid accidents on the roadway around them.

These driving techniques take into account the fact that the roadways are some of the most dangerous areas in which humans operate and do what they can to minimize potential threats.

However, defensive driving cannot prevent all accidents. Sometimes, there is just no predicting or preventing the negligent or careless actions of other drivers. If you or somebody you care about has been injured due to the actions of another driver on the roadway, please reach out to an attorney as soon as possible. A car accident lawyer in Phoenix can examine the facts of your case and help determine the best steps forward for recovering compensation on your behalf.

If another driver is found to have caused an accident, crash victims may be able to recover a range of types of compensation. This includes coverage of medical expenses arising due to the incident and injuries, property damage expenses, lost wages if a victim is unable to work while they recover, and even various types of pain and suffering damages.