Single-vehicle accident

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A single vehicle collision or single-vehicle accident is, as the name implies, a type of road traffic accident in which only one vehicle is involved.

The normal inference is that the cause is operator error. The dominant cause of single-vehicle accidents is excessive speed. Some roads are particularly notorious for these crashes, leading to them being termed "dangerous roads". Some vehicles have unpredictable car handling characteristics and/or defects, which can increase the potential for a single-vehicle accident.

Another common cause is that the vehicle may leave the roadway. This can be particularly dangerous, since the driver most likely does not expect it and the vehicle was most likely not made to do it, especially at speed. This leaves very little time to react.

The term single-vehicle collision is not generally used unless the rider/driver and passengers of the vehicle are the only ones injured: although in some cases innocent bystanders (e.g. pedestrians or cyclists) can also be hurt or killed, the term single-vehicle accident is unlikely to be used to describe such collisions.