Traffic laws have one purpose: to keep everyone on the road safe. From yourself, any passengers you have, all the other people on the road, and bicyclists and pedestrians, traffic laws exist to reduce the risk of property damage, injury, and even death from accidents. Traffic laws are not in place to make you late or irritate you; they are there to help govern drivers and prevent needless accidents from happening. If you decide that the law doesn’t apply to you, you are essentially deciding that you know better than the experts that created these laws. To be clear, you don’t know better, and you probably break traffic laws sometimes because most people do.

Car Accidents Can Have Grave Consequences

If you want a better understanding of just how dangerous car accidents can be, you have to go back and look at basic physics. Force equals velocity plus mass. Cars are heavy, and there’s nothing you can do about the mass of a vehicle. It’s a constant. But, what you can control is the velocity of that vehicle. Simply put, driving faster might get you where you are going faster or speed you along to your final destination. The faster your car is going during an impact, the greater the likelihood of serious or fatal injuries.  Speed limits exist to limit the amount of force involved in car accidents, which reduces property damage and, more importantly, can reduce the severity of injuries and save lives.

You Can’t Control The Actions Of Other Drivers

Assuming that you are a highly skilled driver and have been trained to operate vehicles at high speeds, that still doesn’t make it a good idea. Something unexpected can happen, like a blowout or hitting a patch of ice on the road, and you also have to be aware of other drivers. You may be able to control your actions, but you can’t control what other drivers do. What happens if you’re driving over the speed limit and when passing through an intersection, another driver runs a red light and hits you? Does it matter at that point whose fault it is? Financially and criminally sure, but right now, we’re talking about you, the people involved in the accident, and your health. It doesn’t matter who was at fault. At this moment, the only thing that matters is that any injuries you suffer will be more severe due to the higher speed you are traveling at.

All Traffic Laws Are Important

While the speed limit is a very important traffic law to follow, that doesn’t mean the others are not important. All traffic laws are in place to limit property damage and injuries. Whether it’s a law about using your turn signal light a certain number of feet before a stop or about yielding to other drivers, following that law is important because it will help to prevent accidents.

Car Accident Can Hurt You Financially As Well

Car accidents are dangerous, and people die on the road daily due to accidents. But, there are a lot of other accidents that happen all the time that involve minor injuries. While minor accidents may not cause you much harm, they can still hit you in the bank account. You are at fault if you break traffic laws and cause an accident. When you’re at fault, that means that your car insurance will be paying for the damages to the other driver’s cars and any injuries they suffered. With the prevalence of ambulance chasing attorneys out there, chances are pretty good that you may be sued even in a relatively minor accident. If that happens and you’re lucky, your car insurance will be able to cover all of the damages. If you are unlucky, you may end up having damages exceeding your policy limits, which means you’ll be paying for them out of pocket. Even if you are lucky enough to fall into category one, your insurance rates will still increase, which takes money out of your pocket.

If Everyone Obeyed Traffic Laws, The Streets Would Be Safer

The most important takeaway is that traffic laws are important, and they exist to help keep you and other drivers safe. Ignoring them when they aren’t convenient or when you are in a hurry is a recipe for disaster. Maybe you won’t get an accident the first time it happens, but each time you break traffic laws, you increase the chances of an accident, which is never a good thing.