Rear-end accidents are fairly common. While these types of incidents are often not severe, that is not always the case. Rear-end accidents can lead to significant injuries and property damage.
A common cause of rear-end accidents in Arizona and throughout the US is distracted driving. When drivers fail to pay attention behind the wheel, the chances of an accident occurring increase significantly. In fact, according to information available from the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), approximately 87% of rear-end crashes where a driver struck the lead vehicle "included some form or degree of driver distraction."
Digging Into Some NHTSA Insights
When we look further into the data from the NHTSA, we can see that drivers who were visually focused away from the forward roadway at the onset of a collision were found to have longer braking reaction times compared to those who were looking forward (and less likely to be distracted). The data indicates that individuals looking away from the roadway had a longer reaction time by an average of 600 milliseconds.
This may not seem like much, but 600 milliseconds is enough time for our brains to process much of the information needed to avoid collision. Distracted driving, without question, does take our attention away from the roadway and contributes to accidents.
Interestingly, an analysis of rear-end accidents in this NHTSA study shows that drivers involved in rear-end collisions and near crashes were not necessarily following other vehicles too closely, given the speed of the vehicles at the time of the incident.
