Explaining the Dangers of Merging Traffic

San Diego Car Accident Lawyers
Explaining the Dangers of Merging Traffic

Anyone who has driven on the freeways of San Diego County understands that mistakes are made by drivers constantly.  While some mistakes wind up being harmless and are corrected, there are others that are more constant in nature and that lead to a high number of accidents.  One of these common mistakes involves merging with freeway traffic.  Below you’ll find a brief overview of this discussion, but if you or someone you love has been harmed because of a merging error, seek the help of experienced San Diego car accident lawyers immediately.

The Proper Way to Merge

Most of us learned in driver’s education that when merging with freeway traffic, we need to follow what’s known as the ‘zipper’ approach – this means that when merging, vehicles already in the merge lane should alternate with vehicles attempting to move onto the freeway so that one vehicle continues on its path, the next one merges and the process continues.  This means that both those already on the freeways and those attempting to merge need to travel at relatively similar speeds in order to avoid problems and collisions.

Common Mistakes Involving Merging

There are a plethora of mistakes that relate to merging traffic, and they are made both by the vehicles already on the freeway and by the vehicles attempting to merge.  In terms of mistakes made by vehicles already on the road, some motorists will refuse to yield the right-of-way to merging vehicles and will not allow them space to move to the left.  In addition, these vehicles will sometimes speed up or slow down unpredictably and make the situation extremely difficult for those attempting to move onto the road.

Those attempting to merge also make several different common mistakes.  The most common involves the simple failure to look where they’re going.  Many drivers attempting to merge simply assume that those on the road already will make room for them, and this is a faulty assumption.  In addition, those attempting to merge will sometimes move into the right lane of the freeway at speeds that are far too low to reasonably mix in with the traffic that’s already moving.

The bottom line regarding this issue is that a high number of disastrous accidents occur when vehicles attempt to merge onto a freeway.  If this includes you or someone you love, seek the help of San Diego car accident lawyers who have been holding negligent drivers accountable for the harm they’ve caused for many years.  Contact Mitchell | Gilleon today to schedule a free initial consultation.