If you put a lot of miles on your car every year, the odds are good that you will be in an accident at some point in your life. Whether commuting to or from work, running errands in Albuquerque or Santa Fe, or on a family road trip, a reckless driver can come out of nowhere and slam into your car. In New Mexico—and across the country—you are most likely to be involved in one of these kinds of crashes.
Common New Mexico Crashes
Careless, reckless, and negligent drivers all share the same bad habits. They speed, follow the car in front too closely, and fail to pay attention to what is going on around them. As a result, they tend to cause the same kinds of crashes. According to auto insurers and appraisers, the following types of crashes are the most common across the country:
- Low-speed contact. Typically happening in parking lots at speeds under 10 miles per hour, these crashes fortunately don’t often cause extensive damage or serious injuries. However, if you were injured in a low-speed crash that was not your fault, the other driver is still liable, regardless of his speed.
- Rear-end collisions. When a driver is not paying attention or is following the car in front of him too closely, he can hit the car from behind. Rear-end crashes can cause significant injuries, including whiplash, back injury, and chest and facial injuries caused by airbag deployment. In these crashes, the driver in the rear is almost always at fault.
- Side-impact crashes. When a reckless driver ignores a traffic sign or signal or fails to judge a turn correctly, he can cause a side-impact, or t-bone, crash. These collisions can be fatal to the driver who is hit on the side. Speeding, intoxication, and distraction often play a role in these kinds of crashes.
- Single-vehicle crashes. It may be surprising to learn that most high-speed accidents only involve one car. Hitting a guardrail or running off the road and hitting a tree are common results of speeding or drunk driving. If you are the passenger in a car in this kind of accident, you can hold the driver responsible for your injuries.
Reckless drivers in New Mexico can also cause head-on collisions, rollover crashes, and side-swipe accidents.