Common Causes of Car Accidents That Cause Devastating Injuries

By Your Health Magazine

Bad luck is rarely the reason why accidents happen, leading to catastrophic injuries. When you look closely, these causes usually fall into a few categories: mistakes made by drivers, problems with the roads, or cars that aren’t working properly. Any one of these can set off a chain of events that leads to someone getting badly hurt.

Here are some of the common causes of car accidents in 2025 that you should know about:

Speeding

Imagine you’re driving at 100 km/h instead of 60 km/h. When a child runs into the street or the car ahead suddenly breaks, you have way less time to stop or avoid crashing. The faster you go, the longer it takes for your car to stop. At high speeds, even small mistakes turn into big crashes.

In fact, speeding was involved in about 29% of all deadly road accidents in the U.S. in 2022. More than 12,000 people died that year in crashes where speeding was a factor. Young male drivers aged 15 to 24 are the most common group caught speeding and crashing. They often underestimate how risky speeding really is, and the results are often tragic.

Driving While Intoxicated

Driving after drinking alcohol or using drugs (prescription or illegal ones) is one of the main reasons crashes happen. When people drive drunk or high, they might miss red lights, fail to stop at stop signs, or drift into other lanes without realizing it.

Even a small amount of alcohol can reduce your reaction time and focus. That’s why “just a couple of drinks” is never safe when you’re behind the wheel.

These crashes are completely avoidable, but they keep happening because people sometimes think they’re okay to drive when they’re not. Sadly, that choice can destroy lives and families.

Bad Road Conditions

When a driver suddenly swerves to avoid a pothole, they risk crashing into other cars or even oncoming traffic. And if a car hits a pothole hard, it can damage tires, wheels, or the suspension system. This damage can cause a driver to lose control.

Places with poorly maintained roads see more accidents caused by potholes. It’s not just potholes, bad road conditions such as icy or wet roads, lack or improper signage, malfunctioning traffic signals, faded or missing road markings (especially reflective ones), etc., are all major causes.

It is the responsibility of the authority figures to ensure that the roads under them, i.e., the local roads, state, and national highways, etc., are properly maintained.

Mechanical Failures

Sometimes accidents happen because of problems with the car itself. If important parts like brakes, tires, or steering fail, the driver can lose control even if they’re driving carefully. For example, a tire blowout at high speed can cause a car to spin out or crash.

Keeping your car well-maintained is essential to avoid these problems. This can also be a manufacturing issue that needs to be handled by the manufacturer. For example, in 2023, Ford, a major car company, recalled 274,000 vehicles because of brake problems that made stopping harder. One broken part can be the difference between avoiding a crash and having a serious accident.

Distracted Driving

We all know that texting and driving is dangerous, but distraction can come from many things. Adjusting the radio, eating, looking at GPS, or even talking to passengers can take your attention away from the road. The problem is that even a quick glance away is enough to cause a crash.

At 60 km/h, if you look away for two seconds, you travel about 33 meters blind. That’s a lot of road where you’re not paying attention. Crashes caused by distracted driving happen because drivers miss what’s going on around them.

Almost all of these crashes are avoidable, but they happen because people don’t keep their eyes and minds on the road.