In a recent article in the News section, Barbara Sibbald described a collision between a school bus and a pickup truck in which one girl died.1 Paragraph 4 of the article,1 as well as the table of contents of the CMAJ issue in which it appears (page 891), use the word “accident” to refer to the collision. This terminology is misleading.
An accident is unpredictable and unpreventable. However, almost all motor vehicle collisions are due to driver error, often compounded by fatigue, alcohol or excess speed. Motor vehicle collisions are a major source of injury, disability and death. If this carnage were due to an infectious agent, the outcry would be deafening — witness the continuing furor concerning SARS.
Vehicular incidents are predictable and preventable. The CMAJ could help to improve public attitudes toward the causes of these events by using the proper words to describe them.
Robert Shepherd Gatineau, Que.
Reference
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