When we read or watch a news bulletin about a road crash fatality, we all react the same way: with horror, a sense of shared grief and a sense of guilty relief that it wasn’t our loved one. And then we get on with our lives. What are sometimes referred to as “accidents” are regarded as a tragic inevitability of modern life.

But there is a new way of thinking emerging in the community of researchers that study mobility. They argue that the term “accident” should be retired, and replaced with “crash”. (The Irish Times style book suggests “crash” or “incident”, or “collision” for an impact between two moving vehicles, should be used instead of accident.)

The reason for this is that “accident” suggests a random, unpreventable act or a small mistake with tragic consequences. But it is a dangerous term because it also implies inevitability. The researchers argue that “crash” encompasses a wider range of potential causes: many fatal crashes are caused by speeding, distracted, intoxicated or careless drivers. Decades of research link death and injury to speed and infrastructure designs that make the road environment inherently less safe.

Treating road fatalities and serious injuries as accidents is part of the human impulse to invite forgiveness and acceptance during a time of........

© The Irish Times