Policy - Riverside PD - Not all crashes are "accidents"

Riverside, Illinois Police Chief Tom Wentzel has established a policy that his officers are avoid use of  "accident" in reference to road crashes.   

NYC and SF have similar policies.  

Writings on #CrashNotAccident

Organizational Support:

NY Families for SafeStreets - Crash Not Accident

NHTSA - Crashes Aren’t Accidents

RoadPeace – Crash Not Accident campaign

We Save Lives – Crashes aren’t Accidents

Media – Blogs:

The New York Times - It’s No Accident: Advocates Want to Speak of Car ‘Crashes’ Instead

HuffingtonPost - We've Been Brainwashed Into Saying "Car Accident"
Nautilus -  How Language Helps Erase the Tragedy of Millions of Road Deaths
Kansas City Star - That Wreck Was No Accident

New York Magazine - Don’t Call a Car Crash an ‘Accident’

National Public Radio - When Cars Collide, Safety Advocates Say It's No 'Accident'

SFMTA - No "Accident": Why Language Matters in Making Our Streets Safer

TransAlt - Get #CrashNotAccident in the AP Stylebook

Missourian - Crash or accident? MoDOT emphasizes crucial difference

Bike Pittsburgh - Why We Say Crash Not Accident - Remembering Mark Popovich

Reclaim Magazine - Accidentally On Purpose

Wired - Stop Calling My Daughter's Death a Car Accident

CityLab - Why we say 'car accident, and why we need to stop

BoingBoing - Car Accidents Aren't Accidents

Washington Post - When a car crash isn’t an accident and why the difference matters

Gizmodo - There Are No Accidents

Alabama DUI Prosecutor - Word Choice Matters: Crash vs. Accident

Arizona Bike Law - Was that an accident, or a crash?

Vox - We don’t say “plane accident.”  We shouldn’t say “car accident” either

Virginia HeraldCourier - Who’s behind the wheelnow?

StreetsBLOG USA - It’s time for AP to nix the term “accident” to describe car collisions

Treehugger.com - Sign the pledge: “It’s a crash, not an accident.”

DrivingUnderTheInfluence - Blog - A word on words: Accidents

Driving.ca- Why there’s no such thing as a car “accident”

Business Insider - The one word that everyone should stop using to describe car crashes

AnnaLeah and Mary - Our crash was not an accident

Safe Driving Blog - Is it an accident of a collision?

Law Blog – Why you should say crash not accident

Biking Blog – Was that an accident, or a crash?

Quoted - The A-word: Is there no such thing as a car“accident”?


DriversEd.com - Why we use crash, not accident, when talking about collisions. 

Watertown Daily Times - "Accident" versus "Crash - Is there a difference?

Living Streets Alliance - Accidents vs. Collisions

CityLab - It's no 'accident': NYPD changes the way it take about traffic deaths

Bicycling.com - Call it a crash, not an accident

BBC - Audio Debate - Should accidents be called 'collisions'?

NY Times - 'Collision' replacing 'accident' for NYPD

University of California, Merced - How people talk about car accidents

Healthy Communities - Crash! On how we need to change how we talk about car crashes

Planetizen - Does it matter if we call crashes "accidents"?

Philebrity - Traffic Deaths Aren't "Accidents"

Jamestown Sun - Getting Rid of "Accidents"

Northland News Center - Officials on a mission to change how we refer to car crashes
The Car Connection - Stop talking about 'accidents', start talking about 'collisions'
The NewsWheel - This Was No Accident; This Was a Crash

Podcasts:

Philly Bike Coalition - Crash Not Accident

Counter Arguments:

Reason.com - Crashes Caused by Negligence Are Still Accidents

Mother Jones – Crash vs. Accident doesn’t seem like it matters much

Slate – Activists want to replace accident with crash. Not so fast

Sun Sentinel - No longer will accidents happen

**** If we've missed anything, please let us know.  We'll add it.  

Riverside Police Chief Stands Up for #crashnotaccident

Cynthia Grosse - Riverside Police

Just outside of Chicago today, a drunk driver struck and badly injured an 8 year old boy who was riding his bike in front of his house.   It's this kind of tragedy that makes us cringe when we hear reporters call it an "accident".   

Criminals love that reporters call their crimes "accidents".  

Fortunately, Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel was having none of it.  This from today's (9/17/15) Chicago Tribune. 

"Drunk driving is a violent criminal act and this crash demonstrates that," Weitzel said in a statement. "Make no mistake, this is not an accident. This is a purposeful act, a crash, and it is a crime that is 100 percent preventable.

The Chicago Tribune covered the story well.   Unfortunately, other Chicago media weren't swayed by Chief Weitzel's plea:

• WLS ABC 7 - Called it an "accident" four times - here
• Fox 32 - Called it an "accident" twice - here