FAILING to look properly is the most common factor in road accidents, according to government data obtained by a motoring group.

Figures released under the Freedom of Information Act show ‘failure to look properly’ was recorded by police as a factor in over 30,000 accidents in 2013.

Such incidents are referred to as SMIDSY crashes by motorcyclists, short for ‘Sorry mate, I didn’t see you,’ the typical defence of an unseeing driver. 

Police can record up to six contributory factors from a list of 77 for each road accident. The top two give the most obvious causes according to the Institute of Advanced Motorists, who made the FOI enquiry. See the top 20 combinations of factors in the table below.

In 13,299 accidents, failure to look was record as a joint factor with ‘failure to judge another person’s path or speed’.

The IAM says the Department for Transport figures show the need for continuous driver assessment.

Sarah Sillars, the group’s chief executive officer, said: ‘We feel that many people eventually get complacent behind the wheel and inattention creeps in.  Combine this with fatigue and distractions, inside and outside the vehicle and the message is clear that drivers must apply their full attention to driving – you simply cannot do two things at once if one of them is driving.

‘We have consistently advocated that continuous assessment is one of the main ways to ensure no driver gets into bad behaviours that cannot then be rectified.’

Top 20 combined factors in road accidents:

	Number/ percentage
Factor with lower code3	Factor with higher code3	Number	Per cent
Vehicles
Failed to look properly	Failed to judge other person’s path or speed	13,299	7
Failed to look properly	Careless, reckless or in a hurry	9,132	5
Poor turn or manoeuvre	Failed to look properly	9,001	4
Failed to judge other person’s path or speed	Careless, reckless or in a hurry	4,339	2
Poor turn or manoeuvre	Failed to judge other person’s path or speed	4,079	2
Poor turn or manoeuvre	Careless, reckless or in a hurry	3,364	2
Slippery road (due to weather)	Loss of control	3,142	2
Following too close	Failed to look properly	3,024	2
Disobeyed ‘Give Way’ or ‘Stop’ sign or markings	Failed to look properly	2,656	1
Following too close	Failed to judge other person’s path or speed	2,597	1
Travelling too fast for conditions	Loss of control	2,486	1
Loss of control	Careless, reckless or in a hurry	2,456	1
Slippery road (due to weather)	Travelling too fast for conditions	2,248	1
Failed to look properly	Stationary or parked vehicle(s)	1,881	1
Swerved	Loss of control	1,869	1
Travelling too fast for conditions	Careless, reckless or in a hurry	1,663	1
Poor turn or manoeuvre	Loss of control	1,628	1
Exceeding speed limit	Loss of control	1,470	1
Exceeding speed limit	Careless, reckless or in a hurry	1,450	1
Aggressive driving	Careless, reckless or in a hurry	1,418	1
All vehicles in accidents	200,074	100
1 Includes only participants in accidents where a police officer attended the scene and in which a contributory factor was reported.
2 Includes the 20 pairings most frequently reported to vehicles and the 5 most frequently reported to pedestrian casualties.
3 All contributory factors are recorded by a code number between 101 and 999. The factor with the lower code number is listed first.

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