Tourist seasons are among the riskiest times of year for driving, even if you’re not a tourist. Government data consistently shows that the period of June through August is the deadliest time for American drivers.
It is important to understand why tourist seasons are risky and what the legal options are if a tourist causes an accident that you’re involved in.
Why Tourist Seasons Make the Roads Dangerous
In some ways, the danger of tourist seasons for driving boils down to increased volume. More cars are on the road, especially in unfamiliar locations. That leads to greater stop-and-go traffic, and cars collide. Likewise, people often rent cars for touring, and the unfamiliarity with a vehicle makes everything tougher.
Out-of-state and foreign drivers add to the challenges. If someone doesn’t know which side of the road they ought to be driving on, then they’re probably going to be even scarier in a more complex situation. Even if someone comes from the next state over, they may not know your state’s driving rules that well.
Likewise, municipal and county rules like designated lanes make the challenges even greater.
Vacation driving also makes people worse at preparing for hazards. Some folks seem to start their vacation the minute they hop behind the wheel. Even if someone is otherwise an attentive driver, vacation trips are long and tiring. Many vacationers fail to get sufficient rest, especially if they’re trying to power through that last hour on the road.
Distracted driving goes up during tourist season, too. People are making plans, checking in on their pets, contacting the house sitter, and telling family how things are going. Some drivers also see something pretty and start focusing more on the Instagram moment than the road ahead.
Specific areas also get more hazardous. Nightlife districts, for example, see heavier drinking involving tourists who then get behind the wheel. Similar behavior occurs near beaches and parks. People also flip out their phones to take in these destinations and share them with others. The net effect is that the tourist season drives more crashes.
Individual locations have their issues during tourist season, too. Local shopping centers become more contentious as additional drivers fight for parking spaces. Complex on- and off-ramps create choke points that expose the worst drivers in the bunch, who are often tourists who don’t know how traffic flows in the area.
Tourist behavior also tracks poorly. Tourists can be impatient with local traffic, especially if the pace differs from that of where they live. Aggression and tailgating become more common as people take out their feelings about their vacation on other drivers. People pack tourist vehicles, often blocking needed views, especially in the back corners of their rides.
In many cases, tourists switch off to other drivers to share the burden. This is good for restedness, but it also increases the odds that a parent might let a teenager handle the straight stretch on the interstate. They get into a single complex situation, panic, and cause an accident.
Time of Year
The time of year also plays a role. Tourist seasons tend to track with periods when the weather is improving, such as Spring Break or Memorial Day. Even if you don’t live in a tourist area, the tourist drivers may be on the road through where you live to get to destinations.
The good weather during tourist peaks also means that people make bad assumptions about how they ought to drive. They misjudge following and braking distances in nice weather. Tourists also make mistakes about visibility, posing additional dangers to pedestrians and cyclists who may not be as visible as drivers assume.
The time of day for tourist driving is another factor. Drivers like to hit the road early to get prime beach locations, for example. That means the sun is often low on the horizon and shadows are long. Throw in normal traffic, such as 18-wheelers on interstate highways, and tourist drivers can easily struggle to even see potential hazards.
Late day produces a similar effect. People returning to their hotels or even going back home often hit the road late with the sun low in the sky. Bright light, long days, and potential heat exhaustion make a solid formula for tourist driving accidents.
What Are Your Legal Options?
The good news for crash victims in cases involving out-of-state and foreign tourists is that the jurisdiction is almost always where the incident happened. Long-arm statutes also ensure that the law can track motorists to other states for claims and suits.
Where this may get tricky is when a tourist’s home state has vastly different insurance coverage rules than your state. Some states require residents to carry minimum coverage, but others barely have insurance requirements at all. A foreign driver may not have valid U.S. insurance coverage at all.
Notably, insufficient coverage often pushes a case out of the insurance system and toward a lawsuit. You may need an attorney to help you bring a case against an uninsured out-of-state driver, for example. Even if a person comes from a state with strict insurance requirements, do not assume they’ve actually followed them.
Tourist schedules encourage people to leave the area within days in most cases. This can make finding tourists to serve with documents harder.
Likewise, the insurance situation can get quite complex if the accident involved a rental vehicle. The renter’s policy, credit-card-based coverage, and the rental company’s insurance all have the potential to play a role.
Sorting out who to even pursue a claim against can be tough. A car accident lawyer can be invaluable during this part of the process.
If you believe a tourist’s actions led to your car accident, you have the right to demand compensation. Reach out to an experienced car accident lawyer like the attorneys at Dozier Law Group to learn more about your rights and the available legal options.
With an attorney’s help, you may be able to obtain compensation that can be used for recovery costs, loss of wage costs, and more.
