A lot of what motorists accept as truth about driving are often nothing more than common misconceptions. Although they seem like common sense on the surface, some can cause a devastating car accident. Here are three dangerous driving misconceptions:
Driving Faster on Your Commute Saves Time
Strictly speaking, driving faster does save time but not that much. For example, averaging 55 mph on a ten-mile commute requires about 11 minutes of travel. Averaging 70 mph on the same commute will take 8.6 minutes. This only saves you 2.4 minutes. While the saved time is slight, the increased risk of a crash is not. When in the city, attempting to drive faster than the traffic flow by lane switching will save even less time. Lane switching in dense traffic doesn’t increase your average speed by much and timed traffic lights will further frustrate your efforts.
Polite Drivers Are Good Drivers
Polite drivers with a poor sense of judgment are dangerous. Stopping your car on a fast and busy multilane road to allow a car from a side street to pull on to the road endangers the car, yourself and the other vehicles behind you. When you stop, you become a traffic obstruction and possibly cause an accident in the disrupted traffic flow behind you. Others will pass around you and possibly strike the car you’re allowing on to the road. Finally, you risk getting rear ended.
A Hands Free Cellphone Is Safe
Driving while holding a cellphone in your hand is dangerous because you’re steering with just one hand. However, another danger is that your attention is split between the phone conversation and your driving. This is mental distraction, which impairs your ability to drive. This split attention also causes your brain to reduce its processing of the visual signals coming from the eyes. This means that your eyes may see something on the road that doesn’t register in your brain. Using a hands free cellphone doesn’t eliminate this mental distraction.
If you are injured in a car crash because of another driver’s negligence or recklessness, contact us at Hogan Injury for a free consultation.