What?

[TWR]

Causes accidents.
Is it,
Lack of concentration?
Lack of Experience?
Lack of Judgement?
Mobiles?
Not expecting things to happen?
Weather?
The car you drive?
Lack of sleep?
Too much heat in the car?
Or is it you?

Why "Do accidents happen"?
Or are are they caused?

[MantaRay]

Mostly down to insufficient concentration and/or attention I bet!

[BRIGHT SPARK]

just 2 things ..............bad roadcraft and bad luck

[jomifl]

Accidents happen when 2 idiots are in the same place at the same time.

[Prudie]

All the things you've said plus a few more I'm sure. Showing off for startesr.

[derekpara]

Mostly due to human error of the kind you've listed TWR, or, very occasionally, mechanical failure.

[Andyvon]

It invariably takes two people to cause an accident - one person to break the rules and the other to fail to avoid them. We all see people speeding, not giving way, pulling in front of us etc and all drivers have a responsibility to know other drivers do stupid things then drive in such a way to avoid them when they do. If we drive around with no regard to other road users, then hit them when they break the rules when we could have avoided the collision by driving more carefully, then the responsibility for the accident falls on both parties - one broke the rules and the other failed to avoid them doing so!

It's the same with a fight - it takes two people who are both equally to blame. It's no good one party claiming the other 'started it'. One could have decided not to react and walked away. However, if the second person chooses to fight, both equally responsible (which is why they both get nicked!)

[Andyvon]

Before I get jumped on..........

I know there are many instances when one driver is completely blameless - being hit from behind, hit when the car was sensibly parked etc. My post below relates to many accidents where two drivers are involved.

[Toureman]

http://www.rospa.com/faqs/detail.aspx?faq=298

[kariah]

Toilet accidents?!! Lack of concentration and anything could happen!

[ummmm]

Children!!

[missprim]

Ummmm you shouldn't let them drive, you know they're too young :-)

[chas2008]

a few years ago i worked for a recovery company where we had the police contract to recover vehicles for forensics & accident examination etc. It became quite clear very quickly that when men/boys have accidents its down to speed,showing off , over confident etc. when women had accidents a majority was down to pure lack of concentration. I lost count of how many vehicles we recovered (some fatal) that had driven out of Tescos or during the school run straight into the path of an oncoming vehicle.

[TWR]

If an accident is caused by a pedestrian, what should the charge be to the offender?
If the same is caused & is definitely 100% the cause by one driver, should he / she get the max fine / penalty?

If it's caused by a NON PAYING for using the road Cyclist, what should their fine be?


Included in the test, would it be a idea to show the new driver WHAT COULD happen if a HGV was turning left at a tight junction & the driver of the HGV has to do a swing out to the right to get his / her trailer to enter the left hand road? Some people may know what I mean by this.

[Davethedog]

Do you work for Lawyers 4 You?

The HGV driver shouldn't take it for granted he can swing to the right because hes there he should have to wait until its clear.

Also the hysteria, at least in London, about cyclists being killed by left turning lorries, the driver is always is blamed, but the cyclist is clearly at fault, if a driver undertakes and is hit its his fault, but if a cyclists does it and dies it the lorry drivers fault.

[TWR]

I was driving the things for 35+years Dave & seen how many people try to undertake a HGV when the HGV driver is trying to do a left hand turn, I've had it done to me several times. No, I'm not a lawer.

[TWR]

Lawyer

[d9f1c7]

A lot of the time it's bad driving brought about by practising faults based on mythology, the biggest myth being the concept of "Right of way" a phrase that is not even in the Highway code and yet it is quoted and demanded all the time.

[rov1100]

Anticipation!

We all know about those fraudsters who jam on their brakes on entering a roundabout. The person behind also looks to his right and sees no-one approaching but assumes the person in front will pull away normally. When he slams on the brakes it fools him completely.

Most drivers anticipate what the person in front will do else our natural driving ability would suffer.

[joko]

you say "or is it you?" ...but MOST of the things you listed ARE 'you'...!
they are the things that make YOU - or someone else - to blame for an accident.

they happen through all of those things as well as many external influences, such as conditions and other drivers.

as all accidents are different you cannot attribute cause or blame in a blanket manner.

[TWR]

An experienced driver drives to the condition Joko, regards all accidents are different, they are caused by either another driver / pedesrian / animal.