Pay Extra Attention on Unfamiliar Roads to Avoid North Carolina Auto Accidents

January 15, 2013, by Michael A. DeMayo

North Carolina auto accident statistics can be dangerously deceiving.

For instance, many safety experts say that the majority of accidents happen “close to home” — usually within just a few miles of your front door step. This is true. But it’s also misleading. Most people spend a vast majority of their driving time close to home. This skews the results!

When you leave your “driving comfort zone,” you are far more likely to encounter unusual driving situations, unfamiliar road conditions, and confusing traffic exchanges and signage. When you drive on unfamiliar terrain, you must be MORE careful than normal. Most of us intuitively understand this. When we go on road trips, for instance, we drink coffee (or Red Bull or 5-hour Energy Drink or whatever your poison), and we avoid distractions as much as possible.

Road trips also involve a lot of highway driving; and highway driving exposes you to particularly dangerous types of traffic, such as truck and commercial truck traffic. As we’ve explored before on North Carolina auto accident blog, truck crashes tend to be, “pound for pound,” far more dangerous than typical crashes because of the force differentials involved. A 20-ton truck driving at 60 miles per hour imparts as much force as a 2-ton car driving at 600 miles per hour.

So what’s the takeaway?

If you’re just boning up on your safe driving skills, the takeaway is this: always drive with vigilance, but when you leave your familiar roads, ratchet up that vigilance another level to accommodate for the extra dangers we just discussed.

If you’ve already been involved in a collision far from home – perhaps you don’t live in North Carolina, and you were only passing through on I-95, when a trucker hit you – then it likely behooves you to find effective local legal representation as quickly as possible.

The Law Offices of Michael A. DeMayo represent auto accident victims like you, and we have exceptional resources and staff to help you solve your problems and hold careless/negligent drivers liable.