The Big Question

Anytime anyone designs a new freeway, or puts time in to thinking about traffic flow or some of the current problems plaguing driving like DUI’s and wrong way drivers, the underlying question is what is the best way to make it so that accidents can’t happen. Sadly, there is no one right answer to this question, but there are things you can do, and more importantly, times to do and not to do them, that will aid greatly in avoiding accidents, and that will be the focus of today’s article.

Actually, today’s article might be one of the shortest that I’ve ever written, because there is one thing that everyone can do, right now, that will significantly lower their risk of being in a crash, and will make it so that everyone reading this will have a higher chance of being able to make it home alive at the end of the day. What is it? Simple: don’t drive at night. According to the National Safety Council your risk of being in a fatal accident is three times greater at night than during the day. And another important consideration is the recent rash of wrong way drivers. I have been following this story for years, ever since I had a wrong way driver, an older gentleman, pass me going down the offramp of a freeway as I was getting off the freeway on the offramp. (In other words, he turned down the offramp, confusing it for an onramp). I did not read of any stories later that night or the next day about wrong way drivers, so my guess is that he figured out his error, or a police officer stopped him before he was able to do any harm.  Wrong way drivers create huge headaches in the Phoenix area. And would you like to know the one thing that ties them all together, besides the usual impairment or fatigue? They all happen at night. I have never heard or seen of a wrong way driver who drove the wrong way when the sun was out. It just doesn’t happen. And that makes sense when you think about it, because you can see the road and the road markings much easier in the day than at night. So anyone driving the wrong way during the day would see that much sooner, and be able to correct it sooner as well.

So the moral of all of this is that if you can avoid driving at night as much as possible, your survival rate is going to skyrocket. True, there are more accidents total during the day than at night, but this is because there are more cars on the road during the day. At night, your chances of running in to a drunk driver are much higher, and even if you don’t run in to a drunk driver, you could run in to a tired driver, which is often times just as dangerous.

Now of course, no one lives in a bubble. There are times where a child will need medicine or food, or a friend has broken down and you need to go help, or a boyfriend or girlfriend need you to come over to comfort them. You now have to drive in the dark, but how to do it safely?

First off, cut the speed. You should not be exceeding the speed limit, no matter how much it looks like no one is around for miles. Most of the drunk driving accidents and wrong way driving accidents took the other people involved in them completely by surprise, simply because the darkness made it so much harder to see things clearly. Slowing down gives you more time to react to situations.

Also, stick to surface streets if you can. All of the wrong way driver accidents I’ve ever heard of took place on freeways, and most surface streets late at night are empty enough to allow you to see situations in a shorter amount of time than you would if you were on a freeway. True, people can come out of intersections without stopping, or turn in front of you without signaling, but those are smaller risks to take than a potential head on collision with a wrong way driver, so In my opinion, the surface streets are safer.

Lastly, if you must drive at night, don’t take more time than you need to. Get where you need to go, do what you need to do, and get back home. Don’t take the scenic route and don’t do other errands that can wait until later, when it’s daytime. Get home as quickly as possible. The less time you are on the roads at night, the less chance of an accident.

There is no magic formula or spell that will make all accidents disappear. However, if a person looks at when most bad accidents happen, and avoids that time, their survival rate will go up. Fatal accidents are three times more likely at night, and nighttime is the only time wrong way drivers appear on freeways. By staying off of the roads at night, you take yourself out of a risky, and potentially fatal, situation. Until next time…