Accidents don’t just happen randomly, there are reasons why some have the preponderate share and others drive their entire life without having one. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:
People often speak of “accidents” as if they just . . . happen. As if they aren’t – for the most part – avoidable. Many of these same people also wonder why we’re all paying through the nose for insurance, to “cover” all of these “accidents.”
We’d be paying a lot less if people paid more attention.
The truth of this is evident in the fact that some people never or very rarely have “accidents” while others have them regularly. This is not random. It is not bad luck. It is not because the Motor Gods have frowned upon you. It is because most “accidents” don’t just happen. They happen because the driver wasn’t paying attention – and not just to his own driving, in many cases.
If you ride a motorcycle, you probably already know where this is headed. People who ride are much more motivated to avoid having “accidents,” for the obvious reason that if you have one while on a bike, it is much more likely you’ll be the one paying for it.
Physically.
Even if it’s not your fault.
The driver of the other car will get a ticket. You’ll get a trip to the ER. Or the funeral home. It tends to focus the mind on what’s going on around you. Motorcycle riders learn to not assume that because the light just turned green someone won’t run their red. They are looking left and right as they proceed, just in case someone else wasn’t paying attention and is going to run the red (and would have run right into them).
I have never forgotten my Grandfather’s advice (when I was at the tender age of ten), “Drive as if every other driver on the road is an idiot.”
I have been driving since 1981 and have never had an “accident”.