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An accident is an unintended, normally unwanted event that was not directly caused by humans. The term ''accident'' implies that nobody should be blamed, but the event may have been caused by unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Most researchers 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. For example, when a tree falls down during a wind storm, its fall may not have been caused by humans, but the tree's type, size, health, location, or improper maintenance may have contributed to the result. Most car wrecks are not true accidents; however English speakers started using that word in the mid-20th century as a result of media manipulation by the US automobile industry.


Types


Physical and non-physical

Physical examples of accidents include unintended motor vehicle collisions,
falls Falls may refer to: Places * Waterfalls or rapids * Falls, North Carolina, USA * Falls, West Virginia, USA Other uses * The ropes or wires, fed through davits, that are used to secure and lower a ship's lifeboats. * Falls (surname) * The sepa ...
, being injured by touching something sharp or hot, or bumping into something while walking. Non-physical examples are unintentionally revealing a secret or otherwise saying something incorrectly, accidental deletion of data, or forgetting an appointment.


Accidents by activity

* Accidents during the execution of work or arising out of it are called work accidents. According to the
International Labour Organization The International Labour Organization (ILO) is a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labour standards. Founded in October 1919 under the League of Nations, it is the first and o ...
(ILO), more than 337 million accidents happen on the job each year, resulting, together with occupational diseases, in more than 2.3 million deaths annually. * In contrast,
leisure Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leis ...
-related accidents are mainly sports injuries.


Accidents by vehicle

Vehicle collisions are not usually accidents; they are mostly caused by preventable causes such as
drunk driving Drunk driving (or drink-driving in British English) is the act of driving under the influence of alcohol. A small increase in the blood alcohol content increases the relative risk of a motor vehicle crash. In the United States, alcohol is ...
and intentionally driving too fast. The use of the word ''accident'' to describe car wrecks was promoted by the US National Automobile Chamber of Commerce in the middle of the 20th century, as a way to make vehicle-related deaths and injuries seem like an unavoidable matter of fate, rather than a problem that could be addressed. The automobile industry accomplished this by writing customized articles as a free service for newspapers that used the industry's preferred language. Since 1994, the US
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA ) is an agency of the U.S. federal government, part of the Department of Transportation. It describes its mission as "Save lives, prevent injuries, reduce vehicle-related crashes" rel ...
has asked media and the public to not use the word ''accident'' to describe vehicle collisions. *
Aviation Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot ...
*
Bicycles A bicycle, also called a pedal cycle, bike or cycle, is a human-powered transport, human-powered or motorized bicycle, motor-powered assisted, bicycle pedal, pedal-driven, single-track vehicle, having two bicycle wheel, wheels attached to a ...
* Sailing ships * Traffic collisions * Train wrecks *
Trams A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...


Domino effect accidents

In the process industry, a primary accident may propagate to nearby units, resulting in a chain of accidents, which is called
domino effect accident Domino effect accident is an accident in which a primary undesired event in an installation sequentially or simultaneously triggers one or more secondary undesired events in nearby installations, leading to secondary and even higher-order accident ...
.


Common causes

Poisons, vehicle collisions and falls are the most common causes of fatal injuries. According to a 2005 survey of injuries sustained at home, which used data from the National Vital Statistics System of the United States National Center for Health Statistics, falls, poisoning, and fire/burn injuries are the most common causes of death. The United States also collects statistically valid injury data (sampled from 100 hospitals) through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System administered by the
Consumer Product Safety Commission The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (USCPSC, CPSC, or commission) is an independent agency of the United States government. The CPSC seeks to promote the safety of consumer products by addressing “unreasonable risks” of in ...
.CPSC
National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS)
. Database query available through
NEISS Injury Data
.
This program was revised in 2000 to include all injuries rather than just injuries involving products. Data on emergency department visits is also collected through the
National Health Interview Survey The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) is an annual, cross-sectional survey intended to provide nationally representative estimates on a wide range of health status and utilization measures among the nonmilitary, noninstitutionalized populat ...
. In The U.S. the
Bureau of Labor Statistics The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) is a unit of the United States Department of Labor. It is the principal fact-finding agency for the U.S. government in the broad field of labor economics and statistics and serves as a principal agency of t ...
has available on their website extensive statistics on workplace accidents.


Accident models

Many models to characterize and analyze accidents have been proposed, which can be classified by type. No single model is the sole correct approach. Notable types and models include: * Sequential models ** Domino Theory ** Loss Causation Model * Complex linear models **
Energy Damage Model In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of hea ...
** Time sequence models *** Generalized Time Sequence Model *** Accident Evolution and Barrier Function ** Epidemiological models *** Gordon 1949 *** Onward Mappings Model based on Resident Pathogens Metaphor * Process model ** Benner 1975 * Systemic models ** Rasmussen ** Reason Model of System Safety (embedding the Swiss cheese model) *** Healthcare error proliferation model *** Human reliability ** Woods, 1994 * Non-linear models **
System accident A system accident (or normal accident) is an "unanticipated interaction of multiple failures" in a complex system. This complexity can either be of technology or of human organizations, and is frequently both. A system accident can be easy to ...
** Systems-Theoretic Accident Model and Process (STAMP) ** Functional Resonance Analysis Method
FRAM
** Assertions that all existing models are insufficientDekker 2011 Ishikawa diagrams are sometimes used to illustrate root-cause analysis and five whys discussions.


See also


General

*
Accident analysis Accident analysis is carried out in order to determine the cause or causes of an accident (that can result in single or multiple outcomes) so as to prevent further accidents of a similar kind. It is part of ''accident investigation or incident in ...
**
Root cause analysis In science and engineering, root cause analysis (RCA) is a method of problem solving used for identifying the root causes of faults or problems. It is widely used in IT operations, manufacturing, telecommunications, industrial process control, ...
* Accident-proneness * Idiot-proof *
Injury An injury is any physiological damage to living tissue caused by immediate physical stress. An injury can occur intentionally or unintentionally and may be caused by blunt trauma, penetrating trauma, burning, toxic exposure, asphyxiation, or ...
* Injury prevention * List of accidents and disasters by death toll *
Safety Safety is the state of being "safe", the condition of being protected from harm or other danger. Safety can also refer to the control of recognized hazards in order to achieve an acceptable level of risk. Meanings There are two slightly di ...
*
Safety engineering Safety engineering is an engineering discipline which assures that engineered systems provide acceptable levels of safety. It is strongly related to industrial engineering/systems engineering, and the subset system safety engineering. Safety eng ...
** Fail-safe ** Poka-yoke * Risk management


Transportation

* Air safety **
Aviation accidents and incidents An aviation accident is defined by the Convention on International Civil Aviation Annex 13 as an occurrence associated with the operation of an aircraft, which takes place from the time any person boards the aircraft with the ''intention of f ...
* Bicycle safety * Car ** Automobile safety ** Traffic collision * List of rail accidents * Tram accident * Sailing ship accidents


Other specific topics

* Aisles: Safety and regulatory considerations * Explosives safety *
Nuclear and radiation accidents A nuclear and radiation accident is defined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as "an event that has led to significant consequences to people, the environment or the facility. Examples include lethal effects to individuals, lar ...
*
Occupational safety and health Occupational safety and health (OSH), also commonly referred to as occupational health and safety (OHS), occupational health, or occupational safety, is a multidisciplinary field concerned with the safety, health, and welfare of people at ...
**
Safety data sheet A safety data sheet (SDS), material safety data sheet (MSDS), or product safety data sheet (PSDS) is a document that lists information relating to occupational safety and health for the use of various substances and products. SDSs are a widel ...
**
Personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, ...
** Criticality accident * Sports injury


References


External links

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