People understand that car accidents are a risk they face, but a lot of people don’t understand exactly how great this risk is. It’s very easy to think of car accidents as something that could happen to someone else. You can feel so removed from the news stories that you don’t think it’s a real risk for you.
But it absolutely is, as car accidents have become something of an epidemic in this country. In fact, recent reports showed that fatalities in these accidents are increasing so quickly that the U.S. hasn’t seen the likes since the 1940s.
A concerning trend
This is important to note because safety technology in the 1940s was vastly inferior to what we have today. Once cars had been developed on a massive scale so that they were very common, accident rates surged. This led to the development of safety technology, like airbags and seatbelts, and so accident deaths have been generally declining since the 70s.
But now things seem to be reversing that trend, despite even more safety technology than we’ve ever had. New cars are outfitted with all sorts of warning systems and driving assistance systems. But even that doesn’t seem to be enough to stem this epidemic and prevent this wave of fatal crashes.
Additionally, while we will hopefully see these fatality statistics decline in the future, that doesn’t necessarily mean that crashes aren’t happening. People can live through a car accident and still have severe injuries that are going to change the course of their entire lives.
If you find yourself facing such a change, or perhaps the loss of a loved one, you need to know about the legal options at your disposal.