Texas residents who have been in a car crash personally or whose loved ones have been involved in a wreck know that even the simplest incident can result in serious and long-term consequences. Damage to vehicles or other property can be bad enough but the injuries that innocent people may experience are sometimes unthinkable. Even worse are the lives lost due to senseless and negligent decisions of drivers.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2016 was quite a deadly year on Texas roads. The number of people killed in vehicular accidents last year rose to 3,776, up from 3,582 the year before. Montgomery County had the seventh greatest number of deaths among any county in the state with a total of 76 fatalities recorded there.
The state’s increase in automobile accident deaths spans multiple crash factors. More people were killed in wrecks involving alcohol and large commercial trucks than the previous year. Alcohol was noted in 38 percent of all fatalities. Also increasing were the number of pedestrians, bicyclists and motorcyclists. Pedestrians accounted for 18 percent of the dead and motorcyclists accounted for another 13 percent. Perhaps one of the most tragic parts of these realities is that vehicle safety is improving, meaning that human error or negligence continues to plague Texas residents.
If you would like to learn more about the factors that may be involved in different motor vehicle accidents and how those may impact your right or ability to seek compensation, please feel free to visit the automotive crash assistance page of our Texas personal injury website.