Pushing Back on Misuse of the word Accident

I was reminded in an email thread discussing Jan Heine's recent crash in Japan about the frequently inappropriate use of the word "accident" to describe most crashes where motor vehicles hit cyclists and pedestrians (and probably fixed objects and other motor vehicles). Lynne Cooney wrote:

Again, this was not an accident, it was a negligent driver.  Continuing to call these crashes "accidents" implies that they are unavoidable.

Here's the beginning of the entry for "accident" on Wikipedia (emphasis mine):

An accident is an undesirable incidental and unplanned event that could have been prevented had circumstances leading up to the accident been recognized, and acted upon, prior to its occurrence. Most scientists who study unintentional injury avoid using the term "accident" and focus on factors that increase risk of severe injury and that reduce injury incidence and severity (Robertson, 2015).

Lynne also provided me a link to a recent opinion piece in Wired, which I think is worthwhile reading.

The opportunity exists for a small amount of advocacy.  Anytime you see the word "accident" incorrectly used in a report about a motor vehicle crash, here are a few things you can do to draw attention to the incorrect usage, yet not take much of your time:

• If the website provides for comments, add a comment to the article.
• If contact information for the author is available, tweet, post, or send an email.
• If there is a public editor or ombudsman (for instance, the NY Times has a public editor), send that person an email.

Cook up a short, polite form letter (extremely short if you are a Twitter-holic) and save it on your computer. Whenever you see the word "accident" used inappropriately to describe crashes involving motor vehicles, paste your form letter into your email/tweet/comment. On social media, include the hashtag #CrashNotAccident. Maybe reporters and news outlets will start to get the message and change their usage.

Do you already do this? Let me know in the comments. If you have a boilerplate response you use, feel free to include that as well.

Theorem - you will eventually get into an accident...

I saved the title of this blog as a possible topic back in May. At that point it had been a long, long, time since I'd last been in a bike accident. I had known other people who'd been in accidents in the past couple years, but I had, perhaps miraculously, remained upright.

However, that changed last fall when I had not one, but two, mishaps on my bike while commuting. The first was largely my fault. While riding up Clark Street in Chicago (mid-October) I encountered a cab who was "stationed" several feet from the curb, completely blocking the bike lane. For some reason which I still don't understand I made the split-second decision to pass him on the right. Unfortunately, just as I was passing, the passenger opened her door. I strained my right AC joint when I went over the handlebars, but was not otherwise hurt. I missed a week of riding and swimming, but got on with my life.

On November 30 I crashed again. This time my chain decided it was mad at my hub and went on strike while I was accelerating out of the saddle after a stop. I hit nothing but the ground. Alas, my keys were in my back pocket and I landed squarely on what had been a round key ring. It is round no more. This took me a bit longer to recover from. I missed riding the entire month of December (partly from the crash, partly from the weather). I am only slowly getting back to the pool as well.