Common excuses for running stop signs

Running a stop sign is one of the fastest and easiest ways to cause a car accident, and yet you still see it happen far too often. Remember that most car accidents happen because of driver errors. These types of critical mistakes put people in the hospital.

Why do they happen? A few excuses people tend to give, per the American Safety Council, include the following:

• Drivers get dared to do it by friends or see it as a sort of challenge. This is especially common with teen drivers.
• People get distracted, perhaps by their phones, and they simply do not see the sign until they go through it.
• People swear that they did not see any other cars at the intersection, so they decided that they did not really need to stop.
• Drivers are in a hurry, so they accidentally or intentionally run the sign to speed up their commute.
• Drivers decide that slowing down is close enough to stopping, so they do that without ever actually stopping the car, even though they know full well that the sign is there.

This last offense is when you get people essentially rolling through the sign. It often happens in conjunction with the third excuse, which is that there are no other cars. Drivers slow down and check, but they ultimately decide that they don’t want to stop unless another vehicle is also approaching the intersection.

None of these excuses make it all right to run a stop sign. They can all cause motor vehicle accidents and injuries. Those who get hurt are wise to learn about what legal options they have to seek out financial compensation.