I applaud the vision of the newly formed International Federation for Emergency Medicine for the inclusion in its Charter of Prevention as one of its purposes. In this context, the continued use of the word 'accident' causes me concern. Sir Francis Bacon wrote 'For men converse by means of language, but words are imposed according to the understanding of the crowd; and there arises from a bad and inapt formation of words a wonderful obstruction to the mind'. So I believe it is with the inapt word 'accident'. To 'the crowd' the word implies some sort of act of God- that it couldn't be helped. Most dictionaries defineit as 'an event occurring by chance', or similarly, and therefore by implication not avoidable. If we are to make progress in the prevention of injuries, be they on the transportation, industrial, domestic or recreational fronts we need to use the language of injuries, not of accidents. Most injuries sustained in the course of transportation occur in crashes. We respond to train crashes and 'plane crashes with inquiries to determine how they were caused and how a repetition could be avoided. We know very well that most road crashes are not accidental- excessive alcohol,excessive speed,going through red lights and controlled intersections, not indicating, and other road code infringements make up the causes of most. Patients present with injuries. Only a small proportion could not have been prevented. In the interests of promoting an awareness of this amongst the public, it is time we abandoned the word 'accident'. (term-accident-vs-injury)
Language: en
", language="en", issn="0264-4924", doi="10.1136/emj.9.3.331", url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/emj.9.3.331" }