Modern roundabouts are the safest form of intersection in the world. Visit http://www.iihs.org for safety facts and FAQ’s.
I would also question any researcher who refers to the collision of motor vehicles as ‘accidents’. While the general public can get by using the term, a professional should not. The word ‘accident’ implies the event was unavoidable. Vehicular collisions are rarely unavoidable. In almost all cases, one or more persons involved made a mistake while driving, walking or biking. Apart from natural events, like falling debris, or mechanical failures like loss of brakes, there are very few traffic ‘accidents’. There are, however, many crashes or collisions.
While I appreciate your indepth correction in using the term “accident” to describe vehicular collisions because it implies it was unavoidable, this is not the case. It was not done “on purpose” whether or not there was an error or mistake. Errors happen by “accident” frequently in our daily lives. It is inadvertant, thus, accidental. Most people aren’t out there hitting each other on purpose.
People do purposely hit each other or harm themselves; these situations are called road rage, vehicular assault and suicide. Yes there are a large % of crashes that occur under accidental circumstances, however you cannot qualify all accidents as being accidental. Therefore, you must qualify them as crashes and determine from there if they are accidental or not.
Errors and mistakes driving a car don’t happen by accident. They are the result of choices made by the vehicle operators. Inattentive driving is a choice. Drinking coffee while driving is a choice. Speeding and following too close is a choice. The vehicle operators are responsible these choices. They are not random or unavoidable.
This is technically true, but it is generally understood that colloquial (and I imagine legal) usage of such that when one refers to a car accident, one is referring to a fortuitous event that occurred while driving that led to a loss for one or more entities.
You can hold to that if you like. I am a bit of a pedant as well, and can certainly understand the urge to fight such misuse, but that is a fight that is long lost.
I still fight on the misuse of ‘alumni’ to refer to a single person (alumnus or alumna would be correct for such), the proper pronunciation of Celtic (‘seltic’ when spelled with a ‘c’, and only ‘keltic’ when spelled with a ‘k’), and the use of ‘data’ and ‘agenda’ only as plurals (‘datum’ and ‘agendum’ would be the correct singular forms). Despite that, not even I am continuing the struggle for the technically correct usage of the term ‘accident.’
Please consider the post above to be edited to say, “…colloquial (and I imagine legal) usage of such is that…”, so that it doesn’t look like a crazed ape wrote the sentence.
December 21, 2011 at 2:50 pm
TheBiggerLebowski says:
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“His study could not determine if flashing lights at intersections confused drivers or if traffic engineers have placed flashing lights at the most dangerous intersections.”
Ergo, one cannot conclude that the flashing lights are the problem. Maybe there might have been twice as many without.
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Modern roundabouts are the safest form of intersection in the world. Visit http://www.iihs.org for safety facts and FAQ’s.
I would also question any researcher who refers to the collision of motor vehicles as ‘accidents’. While the general public can get by using the term, a professional should not. The word ‘accident’ implies the event was unavoidable. Vehicular collisions are rarely unavoidable. In almost all cases, one or more persons involved made a mistake while driving, walking or biking. Apart from natural events, like falling debris, or mechanical failures like loss of brakes, there are very few traffic ‘accidents’. There are, however, many crashes or collisions.
While I appreciate your indepth correction in using the term “accident” to describe vehicular collisions because it implies it was unavoidable, this is not the case. It was not done “on purpose” whether or not there was an error or mistake. Errors happen by “accident” frequently in our daily lives. It is inadvertant, thus, accidental. Most people aren’t out there hitting each other on purpose.
Susan,
People do purposely hit each other or harm themselves; these situations are called road rage, vehicular assault and suicide. Yes there are a large % of crashes that occur under accidental circumstances, however you cannot qualify all accidents as being accidental. Therefore, you must qualify them as crashes and determine from there if they are accidental or not.
Errors and mistakes driving a car don’t happen by accident. They are the result of choices made by the vehicle operators. Inattentive driving is a choice. Drinking coffee while driving is a choice. Speeding and following too close is a choice. The vehicle operators are responsible these choices. They are not random or unavoidable.
This is technically true, but it is generally understood that colloquial (and I imagine legal) usage of such that when one refers to a car accident, one is referring to a fortuitous event that occurred while driving that led to a loss for one or more entities.
You can hold to that if you like. I am a bit of a pedant as well, and can certainly understand the urge to fight such misuse, but that is a fight that is long lost.
I still fight on the misuse of ‘alumni’ to refer to a single person (alumnus or alumna would be correct for such), the proper pronunciation of Celtic (‘seltic’ when spelled with a ‘c’, and only ‘keltic’ when spelled with a ‘k’), and the use of ‘data’ and ‘agenda’ only as plurals (‘datum’ and ‘agendum’ would be the correct singular forms). Despite that, not even I am continuing the struggle for the technically correct usage of the term ‘accident.’
-Bartleby
Ugh – my pedantry rears its ugly head.
Please consider the post above to be edited to say, “…colloquial (and I imagine legal) usage of such is that…”, so that it doesn’t look like a crazed ape wrote the sentence.
“His study could not determine if flashing lights at intersections confused drivers or if traffic engineers have placed flashing lights at the most dangerous intersections.”
Ergo, one cannot conclude that the flashing lights are the problem. Maybe there might have been twice as many without.