A lot of car accidents may be prevented in Illinois if people did more walking. According to a recent study, a huge percentage of car accidents happen within the first few minutes of short drives. So if you have a grocery store that’s a 15-minute walk from your house, walking there may be the safer option.
Findings From Dolphin Technologies Study
Dolphin Technologies, an Austrian telematics provider, conducted a new study with the help of vehicle tracking devices that were installed in 40,000 cars. After gathering data from 3.2 million car trips between 2018 and 2019, researchers concluded that the most dangerous drives are short trips.
Over the course of the data collection period, there were 1,986 car accidents. A closer look at the data found that 87% of the total car trips were under 30 minutes, and just 1% of the car trips lasted over one hour. After looking at the shortest trips, which were under 10 minutes, researchers discovered a few interesting facts, such as:
Twenty-five percent of accidents happened in the first three minutes.
Thirty-nine percent of accidents happened in the first six minutes.
If short trips were avoided, 40% of accidents could be prevented.
Lowest Risk Drives
According to the study, the safest car trips are the ones that last between 10 and 20 minutes. These medium-length car trips caused the fewest motor vehicle accidents overall. After 20 minutes of driving, the chances of being involved in a car accident start going up. By 40 minutes, your chances of being in a wreck are two and a half times higher than if you had driven for only 20 minutes.
There Are Many Other Factors That Contribute to Car Accidents
Looking at the length of car trips is interesting, but, obviously, many other factors contribute to crashes. In some cases, people are hurt in car accidents simply because they had the misfortune of sharing the road with a reckless driver. If you recently sustained injuries in an auto accident, you may want to file a personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault driver.