One of the leading causes of accidents comes from drivers failing to check their blind spot. It’s very easy to simply look at the side-view mirror and assume you are good to change lanes but on today’s over-crowded roadways there may easily be a car aside you, just in that perfect spot to be hiding.

It can be a hard habit to break for many who have been driving their whole lives without ever looking over the corner so here’s a statistic to help you put it all in perspective.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that over 850,000 accidents occur each year related to blind spot check fails and these result in 300+ deaths each year.

On the same topic, if your car has auto-alerts configured to alert you when a car is aside you, do not depend on these alerts. Such functionalists are based on a computer within the vehicle and if you haven’t yet learn this in life, here’s a fact for you: computer fail. Not to say they fail often or the one in your car is likely to fail, but do not depend on these systems as the possibility of such a fail is very real.