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

By Joseph Stromberg at Vox.com

To most people, the terms "car crash" and "car accident" are largely interchangeable. But a growing number of traffic safety advocates have been pointing out that there's actually a big difference — and they want journalists, public officials, and everyday people to say crash, not accident.

The two groups behind the recent campaign — Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safe Streets — argue that the term "accident" makes it seem like crashes are inevitable, rather than preventable. In a subtle way, it normalizes the crash and discourages us from looking more deeply into their causes — whether alcohol, reckless driving, or bad street design.

History

Using the word "accident" to describe car crashes might seem natural. But early coverage of crashes in the 1910s and 1920s depicted the vehicles as dangerous killing machines — and their violent collisions were seldom called accidents.To get people to follow these laws, they tried to shape news coverage of crashes. 

The National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, an industry group, established a free wire service for newspapers: Reporters could send in the basic details of a traffic collision, and would get in return a complete article to print the next day. These articles, printed widely, shifted the blame for crashes to pedestrians — and almost always used the word "accident."

A Word On Words: Accidents

“The public usually associates the word with an event, not with the damage that results.”

Erase it from your vocabulary.  Please.

As someone trained in public health, I loathe this word.  It implies an event is an act of God, unpredictable and unpreventable, something that happens by chance.  If you’re interested in a very thorough history of the word, this article provides details back to the 14th Century of its use in both a legal and religious context.  If you’re perhaps a little less interested, let it suffice to say it was a useful word before we had more rigorous methods of inquiry and all we could do was chalk things up to events falling from the heavens.  But it also shows a pattern of this word having been repeatedly rejected as a technical term–both scientifically and legally, due to its lack of meaning useful to those fields.  Instead, its persistence stems from the term’s usefulness in marketing and politics.

The problem with this word–which, not coincidentally is why it is useful politically–is that it stands in the way of progress.  As long as we term something an “accident” we don’t (and don’t have to) look any further.  “Things happen,” we say, “accidents happen.”  What can you do about things that just “happen”?

Read the full blog post here.

By Molly Tran

Twitter - @WalkingNPR

Blog - Under the Influence

Crash Not Accident Vigil in NYC

Last night in New York City, over 1,000 people came together to support the Crash Not Accident campaign.  Families for Safe Streets organized the event which took place in Union Square.

July 14, New York City - Photo by @pfrishauf

Families for Safe Streets is asking supporters to sign a pledge that says, “I will not call traffic crashes ‘accidents.’ I will educate others about why ‘crash’ is a better word.”

View a short video of the event here. 

Crash Not Accident Vigil in NYC

Families for Safe Streets is comprised of victims of traffic violence and families whose loved ones have been killed or severely injured by aggressive or reckless driving and dangerous conditions on New York City’s streets. We represent the full breadth of New York’s diversity and demand an end to traffic violence.

http://familiesforsafestreets.org

Twitter: @NYC_SafeStreets

E-mail: info@familiesforsafestreets.org

There Are No Accidents

By Marsha Mercer

I learned as a rookie newspaper reporter that there are no accidents in life — none involving cars, trucks or motorcycles, anyway.

“Accident” implies an event that’s beyond our control. Because reporters cannot know what’s in a driver’s mind, we can’t say something is an accident.

Newspapers that shunned the A word reported on automotive mishaps, incidents and collisions. Blow-dried TV announcers and traffic reporters shouting over helicopter noise favored the more vivid noun crash.

Copy editors weren’t the only sticklers for the right word to describe highway misfortune. Years ago, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration tried to expunge the concept of traffic accidents.

By eliminating the word in speeches, news releases and publications, it hoped in 1997 to re-educate people that car wrecks weren’t acts of God but predictable and preventable events.

The agency also launched a “Crashes are not accidents” campaign. From time to time, other groups have taken up the cause, but people hang onto the idea of tragic highway accidents. Now, though, while we can’t stop the lethal combination of speed and distance, we at least buckle our seat belts.

Read the full story from the Bristol, Virginia Herald Courier here. 

Road Peace - Crash Not Accident

In 2011, a London based charity for crash victims, Road Peace, made a call for policy makers and media to stop using the word ‘accident’ when referring to crashes.   

They made some progress and put together some very good resources, which we at the Crash Coalition: Drop the "A" Word, often refer to as we do our work in the US. 

This PDF, "It’s a crash, not an accident Ending a language of neglect and denial", is an excellent summary of the arguments for making this important change.  

• ‘Crash’ does not presume innocence or guilt
• ‘Crash’ does not excuse law breaking and risk taking
• ‘Crash’ does not contribute to the discrimination against victims
• ‘Crash’ does not aggravate the suffering of the bereave
• ‘Crash’ does not undermine prevention efforts 

Chicago blogger stops using the word "accident"

Steve DeLuca is a blogger and firefighter in the Chicago area.   He recently posted I Will No Longer Use My Cell Phone While Driving and Why You Shouldn't Either.  

To our great pleasure, he also noted that he has stopped using the word "accident" because of our work with Candace Lightner and We Save Lives.  

I have also stopped using the word “accident” to describe certain situations.  I saw on the We Save Lives site that an accident is something that cannot be reasonably foreseen or predicted and
 cannot be avoided. It just happens. A crash, on the other hand, is the result of choices
 made and risks disregarded. Most distractions while driving are by choice and are avoidable. Using a cell phone is a choice and a "crash" caused by one is not an “accident”.

Nice work Steve.   

Jacksonville.com - Angered By Your Reporting - A letter from Candace Lightner

Below is a letter written by Candace Lightner to jacksonville.com reporter Jim Schoettler.  Jim wrote this story: Serial DUI Driver Laments Over Death of 19 Year Old Jacksonville Man in which the word "accident" is used to describe this crime by both the defendant and the reporter.

Dear Jim, 

Like others who hear and read this story, I was incensed but not surprised that a multiple repeat offender was allowed to continue to drive until he finally killed someone. This was my story 35 years ago when I started MADD. I was dismayed by this driver's comments blaming everyone else for his problem, saddened by the tragedy that followed and angered by your reporting.  

Yes, angered.  

By calling this an "accident", you fed into his denial and lack of accountability and fostered the defense attorney's rhetoric that these tragedies can't be helped.
I am also the founder of We Save Lives the only Florida based international organization that deals with the 3 D's, drunk, drugged and distracted driving. I always use Florida as an example of media who do not use the word accident when reporting these crimes or crashes because the police here use the term crash when making their reports and the legislature substituted the word crash for accident years ago. They recognized that most crashes occur due to driver error and are not accidents in any sense of the word.  

The media insults the families of the victims and survivors when they use the "A" word and show bias in their reporting, since they are making the immediate assumption no one was at fault. I am expressing my disappointing not only on behalf of We Save Lives but also on behalf of the Crash Coalition: Drop the "A" Word with more than 52 national and international organizations and thousands of members who support our belief that use of the word accident is just plain wrong.  

These drivers make choices, those choices lead to crashes and crimes (impaired driving is a very serious crime) and those deadly and irresponsible choices should not be excused by calling them accidents. I hope in the future your reporting will reflect the feelings of victims and survivors and demonstrate more accuracy in reporting. I am located not far from Jacksonville and would be most happy to meet with your editorial board if you would like to discuss this further.  

Thank you for your time.

To his credit, Jim has responded to Candace's e-mail and put her in touch with his editors.  Candace has proposed a meeting to discuss their use of the word "accident".