Maine Injury Lawyer Blog
We’d like to believe that everyone behind the wheel of a motor vehicle has the proper knowledge to operate the car, as well as the proper licensing and insurance to back it up. Unfortunately, a recent report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety concludes that’s not always the case.
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In fact, the recent study concluded that about one out of every five drivers who is involved in a fatal car accident in Bangor and elsewhere does not have a proper driver’s license. The new study examined crash stats from 2007 all the way through 2009 to determine just how big of a problem improperly licensed driving is in the U. .
Our Bangor car accident lawyers understand that nearly 90 percent of drivers who were involved in fatal accidents from 2007 to 2009 on U. . roadways had a valid driver’s license. Unfortunately, the rest did not. When the statistics are broken down, more than 6.5 percent of drivers had a driver’s license that was either suspended or was revoked, more than 1 percent of drivers had a driver’s license that was either canceled or denied and a whopping 5 percent of drivers were completely unlicensed. This means that nearly 20 percent of drivers who were involved in a car accident in which a life was lost from 2007 to 2009 were not even allowed to be driving in the first place.
Between 2007 and 2009, nearly 21,100 people died in accidents in which the driver wasn’t properly licensed. Recent statistics illustrate that the number of unlicensed drivers’ involvement has been reducing, if not reversing, since 2007. Researchers don’t know if this is a long-term trend, and will be continuing to keep an eye on the numbers.
Through this study, researchers determined that a driver’s age has to do with his or her licensing, as well as involvement in fatal crashes. As a matter of fact, drivers aged 21 to 34 are more likely than drivers in any other age group to not be legally licensed. Statistics concluded that about half of the fatal accidents with unlicensed drivers, the driver was in that age group.
Unlicensed drivers aren’t only common in fatal accidents, but they pop up quite frequently in alcohol-related and drunk driving car accidents as well.
Unlicensed drivers don’t like to stick around at the scene of an accident either. The AAA study revealed that more than 51 percent of the people who left the scene of a fatal car crash from 2007 to 2009 were unlicensed drivers. When an unlicensed driver leaves the scene of an accident, you can probably assume he or she wasn’t insured either. Drivers who are unlicensed oftentimes lack the proper car insurance.
Contact the experienced injury attorneys at Peter Thompson & Associates if you or someone in your family has been involved in a car accident in Bangor, Portland or in any of the surrounding areas with an improperly licensed or uninsured motorist. Call 1-800-804-2004 to make a appointment to speak to an attorney about your case and to discuss your rights.
More Blog Entries:
Road Rage Cited as Cause of Car Accident in Bangor, Maine Injury Lawyer Blog, January 24, 2012
Wicked Winter Weather Increasing Risks for Car Accidents in Bangor and Elsewhere, Maine Injury Lawyer Blog, January 12, 2012