Is it reasonable to be concerned about freak traffic accidents?

A quick look is OK, but anything else can impede traffic.

Your fears seem a little exaggerated.

Just look quickly. Before that light turns green, just make sure you observe other cars around you and you’ll be fine.

Honey, quit being afraid of all these things. You’ve been through enough hell with your surgeries and stuff. Live life freely, not in fear. Release yourself. You deserve it. ;)

Hesitating before going on green, after waiting at a red is advised, but driving through a green you definitely should not be braking. Lifting your foot off the gas when crossing an intersection, which will cause a very minor slow down, while crossing through an intersection is ok, so your foot is ready for the brake if God forbid necessary, and sometimes intersections have bad road seams. When you brake, brake lights on, it is very bad for traffic. It causes slowed traffic waves in dense traffic, and can cause accidents as the people behind you might overreact, and brake hard, because you are doing something unexpected on the road. Part of safe driving is all drivers being able to predict what the other drivers are going to do.

Slowing down to look is way more dangerous than just driving through. Keep it up and you WILL be rear-ended. Here’s the proof:
The city here started to install red light cameras, RLC, at selected intersections. The accident rate has increased dramatically (some estimate 5x! ) because people are so afraid if getting a ticket they slowed down or stopped short.
You can easily look up the accident rate in your town and/or check out the accident rates in other cities where red light cameras are used.
Your slowing down is even worse than the RLC. Unless you are bucking for a “Jimmy The Slimebag Hammer” Whiplash Victim lawsuit you should honor the green a just drive through.

@worriedguy – Right. In the city where I live, there’s one busy intersection with Red Light Cameras all around. The yellow light is on for only a fraction of a second, so even if you’re driving at the speed limit, you have to go through a red light if the light changes from green to yellow as you approach unless you want to slam on your brakes. I try to avoid this intersection, but it’s not always possible to, since several major routes converge there. I crawl through this light so that I can stop for the red light if I have to, but I slow down gradually as I approach it.

Whether your fears are unreasonable or not is largely a matter of circumstance. Just as an example, I’ve an intersection near my house which has an accident much like what you’re concerned with about once a month (maybe two every three months). The one before it has a blind turn with only a short distance before the light – if you don’t know it’s there you’re apt to go through it or at least slam on the brakes (and I’ve seen many do both). I always double check going through either of those, whoever has a problem with it just has to deal. However beyond that, a quick glance each way while approaching the light to make sure no one is being stupid is usually sufficient under normal conditions.

And yeah, if you’re braking (or slowing down) approaching green lights, that’s not probably not so good in most situations and is probably too much unless your talking about serious visibility issues or the like.

In my opinion, no. If you’re going to be afraid of that, then you should be afraid of a bunch of other freak accidents, too.

I think it’s reasonable to be wary of situations that can result in any accident, let alone freak ones.

In a defensive driving course I took, one of the principles presented was initialed OGOB- Off Gas, Over Brake. So it’s recommended to slow down at green-lighted intersections by briefly taking your foot off of the gas pedal.

However, I agree with the above posts that it’s a bad idea to actually brake if you have a green light and the intersection is clear.

I think what might be unreasonable would be worrying about something falling out of the sky falling on your car, and then slowing down if there was like a helicopter overhead. Of course, if one is being pursued by a helicopter, it’s probably a good idea to just pull over and let the cops catch you. ;-p

My sister was nearly killed by someone blowing a stop sign. That messed her up for life and it has been very traumatic on the whole family.

I’m a cautious driver but I don’t slow down at intersections or for side streets that have stop signs as I understand that this causes a whole host of problems for people behind me.

Freak accidents happen. Try to use this fact to live life to the fullest and always make sure that the people in your life know how much you love them.

Every you get in a vehicle, you need to embrace your own death.

Here’s what I wonder, does slowing down actually decrease your odds of being hit in that type of accident? How slow would you need to go to actually see both ways that a car is about to drive right through a red? 20? Less? Maybe if you are crossing a huge 6 lane road and the guy blowing the red is in the last couple lanes you have time to react enough.

Defensive driving is always best. Perhaps you could take some defensive driving classes through your local AAA club.

Every + time to earlier post.