We live in an age of convenience. Where once you could only call to order pizza or Chinese, now you can have almost any restaurant delivered to your home. The rising delivery economy has created tens of thousands of gigs and pumped energy into the restaurant industry.
However, many don’t realize that having more delivery drivers on the road is creating more traffic and causing more late-night accidents.
Traffic Congestion
California is notorious for its backed-up freeways and its congested cities. Traffic is usually the worst when people are getting off work, around 5:00 PM. That’s also the start of peak hours for food delivery apps.
Delivery drivers compete with commuters while the streets are already backed up. This is especially problematic because the delivery drivers are usually on a strict schedule. For that reason, they may make risky turns or end up sitting in the middle of an intersection in a desperate bid to make their delivery on time.
Driving in the Dark
Food delivery apps have their peak hours between 4:30 PM to 9:00 PM. That means most delivery drivers will be out in the dark. This dramatically increases the risk of an accident.
60% of all car accidents occur at night and are 3.5x more fatal than accidents during the day. Even with headlights, driving at night is fundamentally more dangerous than driving during the day. Combining driving in the dark with the urgency to get orders in on time is a recipe for disaster.
The risk of an accident only increases the longer a driver is on the road — a mixture of fatigue and the increased risks of driving in the dark present a serious danger. The longer a delivery driver is active, the more likely they are to make a mistake.
If you or someone you love suffered serious injuries at the hands of a negligent delivery driver, you might have a case. If you’d like an experienced Pasadena personal injury attorney from McGee, Lerer & Associates to evaluate your case, please send us an email or call (562) 270-0546.