ohaughey here. This article is very good but, as an accident investigator myself, retired I should say, the best thing to do is prevent an accident from happening in the first place. There is really no such thing as an accident. Somebody did something they should not have done that caused the accident to happen, or set off a series of events that lead up to the accident. I have never investigated an accident that did not have a cause. If everyone followed the rules and did everything correctly, there would be no accidents. Well, you might say, what if I am driving past a construction site and I am doing everything right and a big steel beam falls down from the building and hits my car. That is not my fault, right? No. it is not your fault but, it is the fault of the persons handling the beam by failling to properly handle the beam and letting it fall in the fist place.

Most accidents happen because of what the drivers are doing, or not doing. Believe it or not, the most common cause of accfdents is not speeding or even drunk driving, it is not paying attention to your driving. People will light a smoke, mess with the radio, be eating or drinking while driving, or, some women will be putting on their make up while driving down the street looking into thieir rear view mirror and trying to keep their eyes on the road at the same time, but the big one these days is texting while driving. You can not control what the other driver is doing but,you can control what you are doing. Obey all the traffic laws. If the posted speed limit is 25 MPH, go 25 mph, even if everyone else is going faster. Do what the law says to do, not what everyone else is doing.

Keep your car up so it is always safe to drive. I don't know how many accidents I investigated where one of the cars, and sometimes both cars, had bald tires. You can not drive safely with bald tires.

Make sure your exhaust system is working properly or you may just go to sleep at the wheel. Not a good thing. You should have your car inspected at least once a year. One last word, if you do not have a driver's license or your license has be restricted for some reason, DON'T DRIVE. Follow this advice and you may live longer. Thank you.