Music may make people more dangerous drivers

On Behalf of | Dec 7, 2021 | Personal Injury |

What’s the first thing you do when you get in the car? Do you flip on the radio and choose a new station? Do you pair your phone and pick a playlist to listen to? For a lot of people, this is certainly the go-to move, as they get their musical entertainment set up for the drive to come. It’s one of the things that people often do to alleviate the boredom of spending a long time behind the wheel.

Unfortunately, it’s also very dangerous. For one thing, trying to break that boredom may mean just distracting yourself, and any type of distraction can increase the odds of a crash. But there is other evidence that music makes people more dangerous drivers on a few levels.

The risk with fast music

While any music can be dangerous, studies have found that music that goes faster than 120 beats per minute is especially risky. People who listen to music like this tend to drive faster because of it. They may get caught up in the music and not even realize they’re accelerating, but it creates this natural response as it makes people feel more energetic. That feeling crosses over into their driving, leading to things like speeding, aggressive driving and even running red lights and stop signs when they don’t see them in time.

Of course, it seems unlikely that there would ever be a ban on listening to music while you drive. Even if you turn yours off or if you pick songs that are slower than 120 beats per minute, you could still be hit by another driver listening to fast, distracting music. If you suffer serious injuries in a road traffic accident, then you need to know how to seek out financial compensation from the driver who was at fault.

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