Every day, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of car accidents across the United States.

Not all of them are serious, but even fender benders can leave a mark on your vehicle and leave you shaken up. Unfortunately, many car accidents do leave people with serious injuries and totaled cars.

Car wrecks are scary, but don’t let fear keep you from taking action.

If you are injured, it’s crucial to contact a car accident attorney right away for a consultation.

Otherwise, if you want to avoid being involved in a car accident, here’s what you can do.

5 Ways To Avoid Car Accident:

1. Keep a safe distance.

Rear end collisions are one of the most common types of car accidents.

Maintaining your distance is the best way to avoid hitting someone in front of you.

Distance allows you more time to react in case the person in front of you hits their brakes unexpectedly or really hard.

The more distance, the more time you have to react.

2. Don’t try to eat or text while driving.

This should go without saying, but don’t drive while distracted.

Everything that isn’t part of driving your vehicle can be considered a distraction, from trying to eat a hamburger or looking for your phone to reaching into the back seat to calm your dog. Never take your eyes off the road in an attempt to multi task.

3. Pull over if you’re tired.

The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported 91,000 crashes in 2017 caused by drowsy drivers.

These crashes caused 50,000 injuries and 795 deaths.

Being drowsy can impair your ability to drive in the same way as being drunk.

Although they aren’t exactly the same, intoxication and drowsiness create slow reaction times, diminish alertness, and negatively impact decision making ability.

When someone falls asleep at the wheel, they often drift into another lane at high speed and crash into another car.

You don’t want to be this person.

You could end up killing yourself, your passengers, and other people on the road.

4. Be aware of other drivers’ intentions.

Sometimes other drivers won’t see you in time and will crash into your car.

This can happen at stop lights, stop signs, right turns, and even in the parking lot.

For example, say you’ve just backed out of a parking spot and are about to put your car in drive and exit the parking lot when you notice someone in front of you pulling out of their space.

You watch them backing out and realize they haven’t looked back your way and are now just a few feet from hitting your front bumper.

Noticing the driver hasn’t looked back your way when backing out can give you the few seconds needed to get out of the way.

If you don’t notice, you could end up driving forward and hitting them, which could possibly make the accident legally your fault.

If you’re stopped and the driver backing out hits you, the accident is more likely to be determined to be their fault.

You can’t predict what other drivers are going to do all the time, but when you pay attention, you can get a heads up in some situations.

For instance, if a car doesn’t have its turn signal on, but its front wheels are turned in a certain direction, they’re probably planning on turning.

5. Slow down in heavy rain and snow.

Some people have an ego about being able to drive in the rain and snow, but don’t be one of them.

There’s nothing wrong with slowing down in bad weather.

It doesn’t mean you can’t drive.

In fact, slowing down is a legal obligation.

It’s hard to see in heavy rain, even when your wipers are going full speed.

Slowing down makes you a safer driver because you need more stopping power when visibility is low and your brakes are wet.

When it comes to snow, sometimes snow is easy to drive in, but the more compact it becomes, the more chance there is for an accident because it will turn into solid ice.

You also have to be concerned with black ice, and that’s usually unpredictable.

However, sometimes black ice routinely forms in specific areas, so pay attention and know which spots to avoid.

Follow the rules of the road!

Lastly, if there’s one thing everyone can do to avoid car accidents, it’s following traffic laws.

Laws might seem too restrictive, but they exist for a reason, and if everyone follows them, everyone is safer.

You won’t avoid all accidents, but you can avoid the ones that are preventable.