Why do wrong-way accidents keep happening?

Technically speaking, a car accident should almost never happen. The majority of crashes are caused by human error. In theory, if everyone drove perfectly and followed the rules of the road, the vast majority of accidents would be canceled out. You would still have some from mechanical errors or roadway design problems, but it is likely that about nine out of 10 accidents would be prevented.

That being said, some accidents seem a bit more unlikely than others. A wrong-way accident is one of these. Many of these accidents happen on the interstate. Because the interstate has on-ramps and off-ramps controlling traffic, it should be virtually impossible for a driver to go the wrong way down the road. And yet it continues to happen, so you may be wondering why.

Impairment leads the way

You can sometimes find reasons that are rare and may only apply to a few specific situations. For example, maybe a young student driver got confused about which ramp they were supposed to take. Maybe an elderly person was still driving after they probably should have relinquished their license due to the onset of dementia. These types of accidents do happen from time to time.

But, by a wide margin, the main reason for wrong-way accidents is driver impairment. Those who have had a few too many drinks are far more likely to get on the road going in the wrong direction. Additionally, since they are impaired, they may not even realize their mistake. They will continue driving the wrong way until they have caused a crash.

If you’ve been injured in one of these accidents, or if you’ve lost a loved one, you need to know what legal options you have.