Anaheim Personal Injury Law Blog

Each year, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance sponsors Operation Safe Driver Week to promote awareness among commercial and passenger car drivers regarding negative driver behavior. Although the CVSA is an organization that focuses on commercial vehicle safety, it recognizes that safety on California roadways and throughout the nation depends on all drivers, in all types of vehicles, adhering to the rules of the road.

According to the CVSA, 94% of all vehicle crashes involve some contribution of driver behavior. If, through the issuance of the 46,752 citations and 87,624 warnings made during this year's Operation safe Driver Week, accidents involving semi-trucks and tractor-trailers can be reduced, everyone wins. Speeding, including violation of the basic speed law and driving too fast for the road conditions, was the number one violation for which commercial drivers were cited. Others high on the list included failure to wear a seat belt, failure to obey a traffic control device, use of a handheld phone and improper lane change.

California motorists may have noticed several high-profile road rage incidents in the news lately, including the story of a Wisconsin woman who was shot dead while trying to teach her teen son to drive. Unfortunately, these incidents are not isolated.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, fatal road rage accidents have spiked significantly. In 2006, there were only 80 deadly road rage incidents, but that number skyrocketed to 467 in 2015. Meanwhile, a nonprofit news agency reported that incidents involving drivers who threaten other drivers with a gun or fire a gun at other motorists jumped from 247 in 2014 to 620 in 2016. In addition, a survey from the American Automobile Association's Foundation for Traffic Safety found that almost 80% of U.S. drivers admit to displaying anger, aggression or road rage behind the wheel in the last 12 months. For instance, 51% admit they have tailgated on purpose, 47% admit to yelling at other motorists, 45% admit to honking their horn out of annoyance or anger, and 33% admit to making obscene gestures. Worse, 24% of those polled said they have tried to block another vehicle from making a lane change, 12% said they have purposely cut off other vehicles, 4% said they have left their vehicle to confront another motorist, and 3% have actually hit another driver on purpose.

Whether you are the parent of a teen driver or simply another driver who has to share the road with teenagers in California, you probably worry about their driving. No age group has higher crash rates. A big reason is that teens are young and inexperienced. They're naturally going to crash more often than experienced adults, and the statistics back it up year after year.

However, that does not mean we have to resign ourselves to an epidemic of teenage car accidents. There are steps that people can take to reduce the risks. According to some studies, one such step may be allowing teens to sleep in more and get to school later.

For three consecutive years, from 2016 to 2018, the number of roadway deaths in California and across the U.S. has exceeded 40,000. There are a number of factors that must be considered before the real reason for a crash can be determined. According to the National Safety Council, there are 23 such factors. Unfortunately, a recent NSC study found that no state captures all 23 of these factors in its police reports.

The NSC report is entitled "Undercounted Is Underinvested: How Incomplete Crash Reports Impact Efforts to Save Lives." The factors that any police report should be able to capture include levels of driver fatigue, texting, the use of hands-free devices and the use of drugs that can be identified on positive drug tests, such as marijuana. To date, no state has fields or codes for police to measure driver fatigue.