| As an Atlanta personal injury lawyer, a large number of the serious injury cases I handle are the result of an auto accident. The overwhelming majority of my auto accident cases involve the negligence of the other driver due to causes other than speed.
Despite my professional observations, speeding seems to get the most attention from lawmakers concerned with the number of fatal car accidents in Georgia. Recently, Governor Purdue's "Super Speeder" law went into effect across the State, leading me to question whether speed really is the biggest factor in auto accidents. The answer from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration confirmed what I have seen time and time again in my auto accident injury cases.
According to the NHTSA, the number one cause of auto accidents is driver recognition errors, which is a category that includes inadequate surveillance, internal and external distractions, and inattention. The leading single cause of auto accidents turns out to be inadequate surveillance, which includes a driver's failure to look before making a maneuver or looked but did not see the other driver before making the maneuver.
The next leading cause of auto accidents turns out to be internal driver distraction. The leading internal distraction being talking to a passenger, followed by cell phone use.
The results from this extensive study were not at all surprising.
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