Is the automobile industry to blame for car accidents

I think it is. Your driving down the freeway and the brakes stop working, or some other car malfunction; hence, resulting in accidents. Do people really put to much faith in their cars. Like computers do people not realize that cars are machines too. Hence the phrase "computers are stupid." The same thing can be said about cars.

Sorry i believe it is mainly down to the person behind the wheel, most people have their vehicals inspected at least 1 a month. Very rarely are accidents blamed of malfunctions of vehicles

[edit on 24-6-2004 by drunk]

From my experience, i'd say people are the major cause of accidents. Many think they are invincible in these vehicles and just do stupid things.
Driving too fast for conditions is something I see regularly. They don't understand that roads are very slick when it first starts to rain. Of course when they slide off the road and hit a guard rail they immediately wise up.
Either that or people don't maintain their vehicle. For instance, my supervisor has a car with the absolute baldest tires I have ever seen. I've told him that he will be in a serious accident if he doesn't do something about; doesn't seem to care.
I've never been in an accident where it was the cars fault. It was always my fault. Not paying attention or driving too fast.
There are occasional freak accidents like the throttle getting stuck, and someone is slammed into a tree at full speed. But, that's rare.

I say No, they're not responsible.

How many accidents are there in the US each year due to faulty equipment or manufacturer defects ?

How many accidents are due to driver error ?

How many accidents are due to driver being intoxicated / drug use ?


I started to do the research on this, but am at work today and really can't get that far into it.

here is a link I found, I hope it's the right place to look, maybe someone can jump in and find the stats for us ?

www.bts.gov... tics/2003/index.html

Using this logic one could sue the cell phone, bill board, fast food radio broadcasting industries for distracting drivers. In otherwords blame anything but the personal responsibility of the driver to make sure the vehicle is safe (refer to specifics in your cars manual, opps never read that!) to drive and that distractions are not allowed to detract from attention on the road.

Automobile safety has improved markedly with built-in devices and better engineering, the humans behind the wheel on the other hand have only gotten worse in my opinion.

Wile i aggree most accedents are the drivers falt that doesent aloways hold true . exploding gas tanks Pinto Cars spontainsly combusting no accedent involved Tarion. Wheels falling off Brand new huling trucks wheels and rim ford. OO theres been more then a few times when a car company made and sold a car that was prone to problems because of poor manfucturing or just plane bad planing.
Tell me why and who would make and buy trucks that have such a High center of gravity that even taking a regular curve at posted speed will cause the truck to flip? Almost every SUV has this problem .Why do they make them? because monster trucks have made people think its the in thing > This has little to do with SAFTY of the truck and more about looks.

The very first accident was driver error. It happened on May 30th 1896.

Here's how the accident, which happened on upper Broadway, was reported in the New-York Daily Tribune:


The wagon [automobile] operated by Henry Wells, of Springfield, Mass., wobbled furiously, going in a zig-zag fashion, until it seemed that the driver had lost control of it. Evylyn Thomas, of No. 459 West Ninetieth-st., was approaching on her bicycle, when suddenly the wheel and horseless carriage met, and there was a crash. A crowd gathered, and the woman was picked up unconscious, her leg fractured. An ambulance took her to the Manhattan Hospital, where last night it was reported that she would recover soon. Wells was taken to the West One-hundred-and-twenty-fifth-st. station, and held pending the result of the injuries to Miss Thomas. The wagon went on in charge of another operator.

A touching account, and, if you think about it, eerily prophetic: the driver is in jail, the victim unconscious -- while the horseless carriage, with god knows who at the wheel, rolls merrily on its way.

Have things really changed since then?

hey Phoenix, better edit your post, you're going to give people a lot of ideas there

I see what you mean though... a lot of distractions on the road today, also with the performance vehicles that are available, its a recipe for disaster.

I was on the highway once, 4 lane, divided and there was an accident south bound ( I was headed North ) and people who were looking at the accident, had an accident, 3 cars rearended each other while "looking", I laughed all the way past them... ( there were no injuries )

No, it's the person's fault. Saying it's the automobile's fault that a person drove irresponsibly and had an accident is like blaming guns for people who get shot; it's like blaming my pencil when i misspell a word on the paper I'm writing. (Or is it the paper's fault? )

People have to learn to take responsibility for their own actions for society to work properly. It's not the automobile industry's fault that John was driving 80 in a 65 zone and hit the car in front of him; it's John's fault. It's not the gun industry's fault that Mike shot Dave; it's Mike's fault. It's not the pencil's or paper's fault that I misspelled 'guacamole' on my shopping list yesterday; it's my fault.

Now, if it could be proven that the automobile industry committed fraud by selling people cars with bad brakes on purpose to make a few extra, unethical dollars, and the accidents happened to people who took care of their cars properly and followed traffic laws, then we'd have another situation. But otherwise, it's clearly the person's fault.



[edit on 6/30/2004 by ThunderCloud]