car accident

Australia's #1 for Law
Join 150,000 Australians every month. Ask a question, respond to a question and better understand the law today!
FREE - Join Now
A traffic collision, also called a motor vehicle collision, car accident, or car crash, occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction, such as a tree, pole or building. Traffic collisions often result in injury, disability, death, and property damage as well as financial costs to both society and the individuals involved. Road transport is the most dangerous situation people deal with on a daily basis; but these casualty figures attract less media attention than other, less frequent events like mass murders.A number of factors contribute to the risk of collisions, including vehicle design, speed of operation, road design, road environment, driving skills, impairment due to alcohol or drugs, and behavior, notably distracted driving, speeding and street racing.
In 2013, 54 million people worldwide sustained injuries from traffic collisions. This resulted in 1.4 million deaths in 2013, up from 1.1 million deaths in 1990. About 68,000 of these occurred in children less than five years old. Almost all high-income countries have decreasing death rates, while the majority of low-income countries have increasing death rates due to traffic collisions. Middle-income countries have the highest rate with 20 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, accounting for 80% of all road fatalities with 52% of all vehicles. While the death rate in Africa is the highest (24.1 per 100,000 inhabitants), the lowest rate is to be found in Europe (10.3 per 100,000 inhabitants).

View More On Wikipedia.org
  1. Y

    NSW Reverse parking out of angle park

    Last night, my boyfriend was driving my car and were reversing out of an angle park about 10 metres off from a curved road. We were a good 7/10 reversed out when a car hit us from behind - he'd just turned the curved road and was heading straight. The collision is my car's left back light and...
  2. H

    QLD Prison Time After Another Drink Driving Offence?

    I have a friend who had previous drink driving offenses and 6 years ago had a car accident while driving under the influence and spent 1 month in prison. He has had no drink driving offences since then until New Year's day this year. The morning after drinking, he blew 0.133. My question is...
  3. J

    NSW Liability Proceedings

    Husband had bad accident 2014 has not worked since 2015 due to ongoing medical problems, Was hit with a unregistered driver while starting to turn right his car went airbourne at impact. other driver was speeding but he payed for his own crash testers who said he was only doing a low speed at...
  4. S

    NSW Kid Collided Car in Driveway - Whose Fault Is It?

    A quick explanation of the layout of my street. I live on a Cul De Sac where all the driveways in the area are on a hill with each house divided with a long fence reaching all the way down the driveway. I was heading into my car still parked on my driveway and I began to reverse. I reversed the...
  5. B

    WA Car Reverses into Wife's Car - Who is at Fault?

    My wife drove around into another row and there was a car, with the right-hand indicator on (other driver disputes this). My wife has stopped behind his car. The other driver then put his vehicle into reverse. My wife sounded her horn to warn him, but he reversed into her. Who is in the wrong...
  6. B

    QLD Car Roll Away Unattended - Who is Liable for Repair?

    I was required by my employer to provide a vehicle in which to conduct sales calls at people's homes. On Monday I left the vehicle to attend my first call. Whilst away from the car it rolled into an Energex pole as I forgot to put the handbrake on. The car is a right off and I didn't have...
  7. E

    Change of Cash Settlement - What to Do Under Insurance Law?

    I was in a car accident and my insurer deemed that I wasn't at fault and agreed to pay a cash settlement amount for the damages because I was leaving the country. I received an email confirming that the excess was waived. A couple of weeks later I received the payment remittance advice and to...
  8. L

    VIC Found Out Not Insured After Car Accident - Next Steps?

    Hi everyone, Yesterday morning, I was in a car accident with two other cars and found to be at fault. Thankfully, none of us were hurt. In a series of unfortunate events, we came to learn when submitting the claim that we were not insured for drivers under 25 years old - I am currently 23 years...
  9. H

    VIC Overtaken while merging, Vehicle damaged

    Hi all, On my way home today, traffic backs up on the freeway as usual. I was in the left hand lane, which at a crawl, merges right. The P plater in the 4wd behind me, tried to overtake me on the left, via the emergency lane, as I was about a third of my way into the right lane. I cut left to...
  10. R

    NSW Car Accident Caused by Lack of Road Signs?

    I hired a car from a rental car company, and I had a car accident when I drive to hunter valley garden. It was a single accident. I was driving toward north and needed to turn left. Before I turned left, I have prepared reduce speed, but there was not any road sign to notice it was a sharp turn...