In our lives, we are constantly hearing news of traffic incidents that happen throughout the civilized world. The question of why must these mishaps happen necessitates a deeper studies.

More often than not, causes of these tragedies can be attributed to unsafe vehicles, unsafe road conditions, or recklessness. The former comprises improper vehicle maintenance. The last one involves carelessness of drivers or pedestrians or both.

Certainly, we can see that whatever the reasons are, it is undeniable that most traffic accidents could have been easily avoided. Ironically, it seems this is not so, and road accidents still happen.

Unsafe practices include driver drunkenness and drowsiness, as well as overspeeding. Driving vehicles that are not roadworthy also adds to these causes. Conversely, some walkers are sometimes negligent in their actions, while others deliberately disobey traffic sign rules due to rush purposes or just for the fun of it.

Ironically, there are research that pointed out that in areas where road conditions are not good, vehicular accidents are relatively few against those of the relatively safe roads. The most probable reason arrived at was that drivers tend to be careless where hazards are not very apparent, while they take extra precautions where there are hazard signs that remind them when they are travelling on bad roads.

Governments in all parts of the world are doing all they can do to minimize traffic accidents, which will consequently result to fewer loss of lives and damage to properties. The Vienna Convention on Road Signs and Signals was promulgated to come up uniform road signs and traffic safety signs for all countries around the world, for conveniently understanding and in circumventing the language barrier.

Fewer traffic mishaps could have happened if only each one is safety conscious. Heeding safety signs and traffic-control signs would definitely minimize these accidents. Being responsible for our actions would assist much in saving our lives or properties and to our fellowmen whose safety depends on how each one of us acts, whether we are pedestrians or motorists.