You often hear people say that speeding leads to car accidents, and they’re not wrong. Studies repeatedly show that a lot of accidents have speeding as a contributing factor. When someone chooses to drive aggressively and breaks the speed limit, they really disrupt the flow of traffic and they may be more likely to make a serious mistake that they can’t correct in time.
But it’s important to remember that speed differences can lead to car accidents, not just speeding itself. Any significant difference between two vehicles forces one of those drivers to adjust, perhaps by hitting the brakes or switching lanes. These activities simply increase the odds of a crash.
The problem with driving slowly
What this means is that driving slowly may be just as dangerous as speeding. If someone is going 20 miles per hour under the speed limit, they are a significant hazard for everyone behind them. They can cause traffic jams, they can make people switch lanes at the last second, they can encourage tailgating and other types of aggressive driving, and they can cause rear-end accidents.
Now, slow drivers may not always be liable for these accidents. For instance, someone who gets rear-ended is likely not responsible because the driver behind them needs to maintain a safe following distance so that they can stop in time. But that doesn’t mean that driving so slowly that it causes a traffic backup isn’t dangerous. It can still cause crashes and it’s best for everyone to simply move at roughly the same rate, with the flow of traffic.
As you can see, car accidents have a variety of sources. If you get injured in a crash for any reason, you need to know how to seek financial compensation for your injuries and losses.
