subject: Gender Linked To Gas Instead Of Brake Incidents [print this page] A study by the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina in conjunction with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has linked gender and age with accidents in which a motorist accelerates with the gas pedal by mistake when attempting to brake instead. The study found that while the majority of all traffic accidents involve men, at a rate of 60%, over 66% of the mistaken pedal accidents involve women. The study also discovered that such accidents are more frequent among those over 76 and drivers under the age of 20. Over the last several years, there have been news accounts in Asheville, from the rest of North Carolina, and across the nation of those who have suffered injury after injury because of mistaken gas pedal accidents.
In many cases, when an accident from a mistaken pedal occurs, those who suffer injury are family or friends of the driver. However, there have been multiple occasions in which other drivers, pedestrians, and, in a tragic incident in Santa Monica, CA, whole crowds of people have been the victims of injury. In the Santa Monica disaster an 86-year-old man stepped on the gas pedal instead of the brake by mistake. He then panicked, further accelerated, and plowed his vehicle through an outdoor market. In that one accident alone, 63 people suffered injury and 10 others were killed.
People of every age and gender make mistakes while driving every day. However, if there has been an indication that a driver should not be driving a vehicle either because of age, a medical condition, or some other factor, it is no longer simply a mistake should they cause an accident, but a matter of negligence. If you have been in an accident in Asheville in which you sustained an injury and you believe it was because the other driver was negligent, impaired, or reckless, it is in your best interest to contact an injury attorney in the Asheville area as soon as possible.
By consulting with an injury attorney, you can determine if the other driver or someone else bears financial responsibility for your injury. If that is the case, your attorney will file your personal injury claim, help to amass the medical documentation that will be necessary, and see to it that you get all of the compensation that is rightfully yours. Your injury attorney in Asheville will work diligently to ensure that all responsible parties are held accountable and that you are remunerated for all expenses and time lost from work, as well.
