The Correlation Between Car Accidents and Mental Health Issues
Driving a car is not simply entering the vehicle, directing the steering wheel, and pressing the gas pedal. Your mental state before getting behind the wheel can impact how safely you get to your destination. Humans are not machines, and the art of living can affect every human activity, including driving.
In Alabama, you face a one-in-three chance in your lifetime of being involved in a serious accident that leads to injury or death, according to the University of Alabama’s Center for Advanced Public Safety (CAPS). According to the Alabama Department of Transportation, in 2020, 932 people were killed in fatal traffic crashes. For each fatality, there were about 40 injuries.
Attorney Chip Nix is a Montgomery, Alabama, personal injury attorney specializing in the cause of car accidents and their impact on your life. His office would prefer you never get in a car accident, but there are things you can do to keep yourself safe behind the wheel, and your mental state is one aspect that’s important to consider.
Your Mental Health and Driving
Driving involves a complex interaction between one’s body, cognitive and visual processes. One theory is that driving can be affected by mental illness.
In a 2017 study, researchers from the University of Tehran in Iran wanted to understand the correlation between personality traits, mental illness, and driving behavior.
In this study, researchers recruited 800 bus and truck drivers. They were administered a personality test and interviewed about their mental health. After two years, the data were gathered.
Some of the findings indicate that some mental disorders affect car collisions.
For example:
Developed countries have the most significant number of car accident victims, and collisions are a major cause of death. Around the world, about 3,000 people are killed in traffic accidents every day.
The role of human factors contributing to an accident is 97.5%, and humans causing an accident is 49%.
The incidence of accidents decreased with the advancing years, while the accident history had no impact on the risk of an accident. Older drivers exhibit self-controlling behavior leading to better estimating the risk to their driving abilities.
Some of the findings indicate that some mental disorders affect car collisions. Even depression and anxiety could increase road accidents by 2.4 and 2.7-fold.
Anxiety disorders, including obsession disorders, increased the odds of a road accident by 2.7-fold.
Another study showed patients with psychiatric disorders had twice as many accidents as the control group.
Tired, anxious, and careless drivers also experienced difficulty driving and sometimes exhibited risky behaviors behind the wheel.
Neuroticism led to an increased crash probability by 1.1-fold.
Regardless of your mental state, moving from a novice driver to a skilled one generally takes about eight or nine years.
Similar studies on one’s mental health and driving skills have shown that an aggressive personality and antisocial behavior can explain faster driving and a willingness to commit driving violations.
Car Accidents Can Cause Mental Health Issues
There is no doubt that a serious car accident can have a crippling impact
on mental health. Hitting one’s head into the car or windshield can result in traumatic brain injury (TBI), potentially permanently altering your brain’s functioning.
Mental trauma and even post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can result from a car accident and can even alter one’s ability to drive again or go to work. Mood swings, anxiety, crying, and an inability to sleep can all result when one relives the accident.
The National Center for PTSD reports that an estimated nine percent of people involved in a car accident develop PTSD. Therapy may offer some relief from this condition.
Your Alabama Car Accident Attorney
If your damages are due to another driver’s negligence, non-economic damage, such as pain and suffering, can be included in a personal injury complaint. So can compensation for medical bills, lost wages, and disability – all can be pursued in a lawsuit filed on your behalf against the at-fault driver.
Ongoing mental distress from the accident can be an important component of your accident claim.
Attorney Chip Nix will discuss the mental issues brought on by your car accident, and his compassion and experience over the decades can help you put your life in order.
Call his Montgomery office at (334) 279-7770 to explore your options for compensation following your Alabama car accident.
Sources:
Pub Med
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8451335/
NLM
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5337762/
Elsevier
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0191886900002300
