Category: Motor Vehicle Accidents

Several organizations, including the United Nations, have identified human error and bad driving habits as the number one cause of all road and traffic accidents. It has become so prevalent that the United Nations designated 2011 to 2020 as the Decade of Road Safety. According to Bob Joop Goos, Chairman of the International Organization for Road Accident Prevention, human error is responsible for over 90 percent of traffic and road accidents.

Driving defensively is particularly important in inclement weather. During a bout of recent storms, driving conditions became particularly dangerous on Southern Nevada roads, leading to a dramatic spike in car accidents.

Pedestrian injury and death due to accidents involving passenger cars and big rigs rose by nearly 20 percent from 2009 to 2014. Unfortunately, this steady rise of accidents shows no signs of slowing. While it is true that big rigs spend the majority of their time on highways, in more complicated urban environments, truck traffic can prove deadly.

Law enforcement agencies across the state of Nevada are joining forces in an attempt to combat drunk driving. Since the beginning of the year, Henderson officers have paired up with Las Vegas Metro Police several times to spot offenders.

In 2011, Nevada launched the Zero Fatalities traffic safety goal with then Department of Transportation Director, Susan Martinovich declaring that, “One death on Nevada roads is too many…” Though fatality figures initially dipped, data from the last few years shows that fatal accidents and serious injuries on Nevada’s roads are as common as ever. In some areas the numbers are increasing, particularly in Las Vegas.

The latest data from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety revealed sobering news for motorcycle riders. After seeing deaths drop steadily throughout the 1990s, there’s been a general upswing in motorcycle related deaths and serious injuries. These numbers come at a time when auto fatalities are in a sharp decline, because of advancements in automobile safety technology and driver education.

Across the country, safety advocates, professional drivers and trucking companies are investing research and dollars into new technology that will help prevent accidents. As beneficial as this technology is, as long as there are untrained drivers on the road, there will continue to be accidents.

On Thursday, October 1st, several new traffic laws went into effect in the state of Nevada. The Nevada State Legislature passed the laws earlier this year in response to rising fatality rates across the state. New laws regarding electronic proof of insurance and increased speed limits in rural areas will also affect drivers across the state.

Large truck accidents are a serious concern on the roadways of America. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, large trucks were involved in approximately 342,000 police reported vehicle accidents in the United States in 2013 alone. Of those, 3,964 fatality accidents and an estimated 95,000 injury accidents involved large trucks.