Vehicle accidents can happen any given moment. They always have the potential to result in tragic consequences, including fatalities. One kind of vehicle accident that can be the most deadly involves rollover crashes. As a matter of fact, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, or IIHS, says that over a third of all vehicle accidents wind up resulting in fatalities because of rollover accidents.
Here are a few of the ways that Houston DWI Lawyers suggest that drivers can avoid getting into a rollover accident:
Routine vehicle inspections:
It’s crucial that drivers keep their cars up-to-date with software and technology upgrades issued each year to keep vehicles safe. It’s also important that a vehicle owner takes their car in regularly to make sure that all of their safety features are current and that every component of their vehicle is working right. Safety standards can change a lot, so keeping up with things is very essential.
Tire maintenance:
Vehicle owners need to be sure that their tires are road-ready and safe. If the tires of any vehicle get worn down or are otherwise improper, that can result in a driver being unable to control their car in the event of an accident.
Driving at safe speeds:
Quite a few rollover accidents happen because drivers are going well above what would be safe speeds under current driving conditions. When a vehicle is going too fast, it’s harder for a driver to keep control of their vehicle, as well as increasing the chances that the car is going to topple over in case the driver is reckless in their driving.
Obey traffic laws:
Not only is it essential that a driver operates their vehicle safely, but it’s also crucial that they follow all the rules of the road. Any driver that is behaving recklessly or erratically is dramatically increasing the odds of losing their control over the vehicle.
Don’t overload the vehicle: When a vehicle’s weight and/or size go up, the stability goes down. This why so many rollover accidents wind up involving pickup trucks and SUVs. They have an additional weight that increases their rollover risk. Any driver that owns such a vehicle needs to be more careful about driving safely and cautiously behind the wheel.
React properly:
No one really knows how they are going to react when a crash is imminent. It only takes a single moment of dread or panic for a driver to simply overreact and trigger a rollover accident fatality. A car might flip from an overcompensation or overreaction in steering when anyone has a particularly close call with any other vehicle.
Avoid distractions:
This one really should go without saying in all circumstances, but a driver needs to keep all of their focus on the driving and roadway all of the time. However, if drivers let themselves get distracted, that can lead to them losing total control over their vehicle, resulting in a rollover accident. Don’t text while you drive. Everyone does it, but everyone also knows that they shouldn’t! No text message is worth losing your life over.
There aren’t many Houston DWI lawyers that focus exclusively on DWI defense, but Jim Butler is one of them. With more than two decades as a criminal defense attorney for DUI and DWI cases Jim Butler, the Houston DWI Lawyer, has helped out hundreds of previous clients in avoiding the big fines or jail time that happen as a result of such charges. He’s also certified as a field sobriety test instructor and stays current with all the new methods and tools used in the evaluation of DWIs. He does believe that the DWI laws on the books are good ones and need to be enforced, but he also thinks that quite a few innocent folks are arrested needlessly.
Many Texans don’t realize that it’s actually legal for adults to drink alcohol and then go driving, just as long as that adult stays under the legal limits and keeps their physical and mental faculties about them. The issue with many field sobriety tests is that they provide incomplete pictures. People who have various medical conditions or are just tired or nervous can result in false positives or ‘fails’ even if sober.