Tarzana, California Road Safety Overview
Assessing your safety and risk of a car crash in Tarzana, California, is an essential but confusing task. Knowing what to expect on its roads can be challenging in a community as uniquely situated as Tarzana. If you find yourself in an accident, consulting a car accident lawyer can be crucial in ensuring you’re protected and informed.
Road safety data specific to Tarzana is difficult to come by. However, there is an abundance of data available for both the city of Los Angeles and the greater Los Angeles County, which is home to Tarzana. Unsurprisingly, the available data suggests that drivers in these areas face a noticeable risk of being involved in a motor vehicle crash.
Road Safety Statistics in Los Angeles County
In 2023, approximately 161,000 traffic crashes occurred in California that resulted in either an injury or someone’s death, a slightly higher total than the state reported in 2022.
That number works out to approximately 13,750 wrecks resulting in an injury or death every month and a staggering 441 crashes each day. Nevertheless, out of those 161,000 total wrecks, 40,191 of them occurred in Los Angeles County.
Altogether, 228,202 people were hurt or killed in California traffic crashes in 2023. Los Angeles County accounted for nearly a quarter of that total, with 57,616 individuals in the area being injured or dying in crashes. That number includes accidents that happened in and around communities like Tarzana.
Los Angeles City-Specific Safety Statistics
As the largest city in Los Angeles County, the City of Los Angeles saw the greatest number of wrecks, deaths, and injuries on its roads. Of the 40,191 injury and fatality accidents that the County reported in 2023, 10,760 of them occurred within Los Angeles’ city limits, leaving 15,452 people injured or dead.
Common Contributing Factors To Tarzana Car Accidents
Although a car accident can happen anywhere in Tarzana and at any time, there are certain circumstances and factors that tend to increase the likelihood of a crash. The more factors that are present at any given moment, the greater the risk of a crash.
As such, when even just one of these factors is present, it is crucial that you exercise caution:
Alcohol or Drug Impaired Driving
In 2021, roughly 100 people were killed in California in drunk driving crashes each month. Drunk or otherwise impaired drivers have difficulty observing hazards and reacting appropriately in dangerous situations. And even if an impaired driver recognizes an impending collision, they will more than likely have trouble safely avoiding the crash.
You can bolster your safety by not driving in Tarzana after having consumed alcohol or drugs. In cases where you are sober but observe another motorist who is having trouble maintaining a constant speed and direction, give that driver extra space. The greater distance you can put between the two of you, the safer you will be.
Right-of-Way Violations
About 25 percent of all traffic fatalities in the United States (and about half of all injury crashes) occur at intersections, including some of the major intersections along Ventura Boulevard and the Ventura Expressway in LA.
Safely navigating through these busy intersections depends on all drivers observing California’s right-of-way laws.
In general, these laws impose the following rules:
- Motorists who do not have a green light must wait for those that do before proceeding
- Traffic turning left must yield to motorists who are approaching them
- Merging traffic must ensure that there are no vehicles around them before merging
- Vehicles approaching an intersection should yield to others that arrived before them
- At a four-way stop, the right of way is to be yielded to traffic on your right
Drivers have a valid expectation that other motorists will recognize and follow these rules. When they don’t, traffic collisions can (and often do) happen.
Speeding
Congested roads are practically one of Los Angeles’ defining features, and they can be frustrating for drivers trying to get from one place to another.
As irritating as heavy traffic can be, exceeding the speed limit or even driving too fast for the prevailing traffic conditions can be incredibly dangerous. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has identified speeding as a factor in about one-third of motor vehicle deaths for over two decades.
The faster you travel, the more time it takes to bring your car to a safe stop. And at the same time, excessive speed gives you less time to react to a dangerous situation. Finally, the amount of force transferred from one vehicle to another in a crash increases with speed.
Combined, these three consequences make speeding a significant factor in crashes in Tarzana and the greater Los Angeles area.
Distracted Driving
Whether you are a city resident or an excited tourist, anyone who is busy on their cell phone or who is eating and drinking while driving is distracted and, therefore, dangerous to everyone else on the road.
In either case, the driver’s attention is diverted from the road and other traffic on it, giving them far less time to react to a sudden danger and potentially leading to sudden, knee-jerk reactions. If the driver does not have control of the car because they are holding a drink or a phone, safely avoiding a crash under such conditions is difficult.
Tarzana Road Safety Review
Although injury and fatal wrecks occur elsewhere throughout the state, there is no other city in California that experiences as many each year as Los Angeles. As such, drivers who find themselves in a suburb like Tarzana should recognize the risks that come from driving in one of the busiest and most congested locations in the United States.
Still, even though the risk of a crash is always present, motorists can mitigate the potential dangers by slowing down, following the rules of the road, and not driving while impaired or distracted.