Not Using Turn Signals Causes More Accidents Than Distracted Driving

When’s the last time you used your turn signals when driving?

According to research by the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), drivers neglect to use their turn signals when making a turn around 25% of the time. Drivers also either fail to use their turn signals when changing lanes or fail to turn the signals off 48% of the time. That works out to about 2 billion times a day that US drivers fail to use their signals appropriately.

The result? About 2 million roadway collisions each year. That’s more than twice the 950,000 accidents linked to distracted driving!

Using a turn signal seems like such a small thing. But at Siegfried & Jensen, we know from our work with victims of car accidents, truck accidents, and motorcycle accidents that it’s the common, everyday things that usually cause or prevent terrible injuries and deaths.

As part of our commitment to safer communities, we have previously run a print advertising campaign aimed at reminding drivers about simple, common-sense driving tasks that save lives – things like using your turn signal and stopping at stop signs. If we launch a similar campaign in the future, we’d love to receive any suggestions for topics you may have. Please feel free to share them in the comments section. We’d love to hear from you.