BMJ bans "accidents"

doi:10.1136/bmj.322.7298.1320

BMJ 2001;322:1320-1321 ( 2 June )

Editorials

BMJ bans "accidents"

Accidents are not unpredictable

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

For many years safety officials and public health authorities have discouraged use of the word "accident" when it refers toinjuries or the events that produce them. An accident is oftenunderstood to be unpredictable $---$ a chance occurrence or an "actof God" $---$ and therefore unavoidable. However, most injuries andtheir precipitating events are predictable and preventable.^1-3That is why the BMJ has decided to ban the wordaccident.

In an editorial in the BMJ in 1993 Evans explained why "motor vehicle crash" is an appropriate expression but "motor vehicleaccident" is not: "The word crash indicates in a simple factualway what is observed, while accident seems to suggest in additiona general explanation of why it occurred without any evidenceto support such an explanation."⁴ Evans also argued that "accident"is inappropriate in reference to medical errors (as in medicalaccidents) and that "its use in medical settings continues . . . [Full text of this article]

CiteULike

Complore

Connotea

Del.icio.us Add to Digg

Digg

Technorati What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

Lipscomb, H J (2005). The importance of observational methods for evaluation of interventions to prevent occupational injuries. Occup. Environ. Med. 62: 819-820 [Full text]
Pless, I B., Hagel, B. E (2005). Injury prevention: a glossary of terms. J. Epidemiol. Community Health 59: 182-185 [Abstract] [Full text]
McCulloch, J, Sykes, M, Haut, F (2005). Accidents don't happen any more: junior doctors' experience of fatal accident inquiries in Scotland. Postgrad. Med. J. 81: 185-187 [Abstract] [Full text]
Pless, B. (2004). Road traffic injury prevention. BMJ 328: 846-846 [Full text]
Sibbald, B. (2004). It's no accident. CMAJ 170: 174-174 [Full text]
Holbrook, J. (2003). The criminalisation of fatal medical mistakes. BMJ 327: 1118-1119 [Full text]
Gore, G (2003). Searching the medical literature. Inj. Prev. 9: 103-104 [Full text]
Swaen, G M H, van Amelsvoort, L G P M, Bultmann, U, Kant, I. (2003). Fatigue as a risk factor for being injured in an occupational accident: results from the Maastricht Cohort Study. Occup. Environ. Med. 60: i88-92 [Abstract] [Full text]
Shaw, M. (2002). The accidental epidemiologist: losing the way or following social-epidemiological leads?. Int J Epidemiol 31: 523-526 [Full text]
Cordeiro, M (2002). Banning the word "accident". Inj. Prev. 8: 87-87 [Full text]
Pless, B (2001). Mentoring and momenti: on timely thanks. Inj. Prev. 7: 169-170 [Full text]

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

The word 'accident' should not be purged: Judith M Green
bmj.com, 1 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Accident looking for somewhere to happen: John McConnell
bmj.com, 1 Jun 2001 [Full text]
In defence of accidents.: Pat Coleman
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Re-consider ban on 'accident': Nicholas Birkett
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Accidents are not deliberate.: C O Lister
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Not Evertone Agrees: Thomas H Taylor
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Some daft terminology: Anna Whelan
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
First of June Fool?: Lucy-Jane Davis
bmj.com, 1 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Newspeak: John Hopkins
bmj.com, 1 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Join the real, less than perfect world!: Anthony Papagiannis
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Re: right to a "t": Nicholas Moore
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Don't be too hard on your editors: John Dutton
bmj.com, 2 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Accident: Preventable; not Verboten: George Anstadt
bmj.com, 3 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Accidents and Injuries - complementarity on prevention strategies: M�rio Cordeiro
bmj.com, 4 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Injevents?: Susan P Baker
bmj.com, 4 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Accidental Hero or: Angela Thomson
bmj.com, 4 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Re: Some daft terminology: Neville W Goodman
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Looking for Trouble: Stephen R Kepple
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Speculative philosophy and medicine: Sergio Stagnaro
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2001 [Full text]
accidents happen: Tim Marshall
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Study accidents- reduce injuries.: Veronica Nanton
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2001 [Full text]
More Descriptive Words: Doug Stephens
bmj.com, 5 Jun 2001 [Full text]
injury and accident: Leon Robertson
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
And if you still need more convincing look to Katmandu: Mark L Rosenberg
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Semantics and Reality: Joseph L Kearns
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Convince, don't ban: Hassan Soubhi
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
"Accident" denotative and connotative meanings: Steven C Macdonald
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
It was an accident: Kypros Kypri
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Assessing : Accident VS Injury: Les Fisher
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
BMJ takes leadership role: Joan Ozanne-Smith
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
The BMJ should also ban "Casualty": Colin A Graham
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
It's about time: Fred Rivara
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
an accidental misleader?: David C Taylor
bmj.com, 6 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Public health problem needs policy intervention: Tsung-Hsueh Lu
bmj.com, 7 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Editorial: 'BMJ Bans Accidents': S N Jarvis
bmj.com, 7 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Don't take the "A" out of "A&E"!: Georgia Ingram
bmj.com, 7 Jun 2001 [Full text]
The New Frontier: From Accidents to Near Misses and Adverse Events: Paul Barach, et al.
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Injuries not Accidents: Jo Sibert
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
'Accidents' refer to what is not knowable: Craig Anderson
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Precise terms: Linda C Degutis
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Commonsense an accidental victim?: David C Anderson
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
NLM's MeSH should be the next target: Tsung-Hsueh Lu
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Removing the comforts of the negligent majority: Douglas Carnall
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
I admire your stance on this issue: Grier Bannon
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
"accident" survivors: John Sery
bmj.com, 8 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Precise terms lead to precise findings: Mary Overpeck
bmj.com, 9 Jun 2001 [Full text]
BMJ bans "accidents": Liz Iwanowski
bmj.com, 9 Jun 2001 [Full text]
BMJ who?: Jim McKnight
bmj.com, 9 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Accident is a kind word: Elaine Sugden
bmj.com, 11 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Congratulations on taking a stand: Lou Romig
bmj.com, 11 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Shall we Ban 'Non-Accidents' ?: Benjamin Jacobs
bmj.com, 12 Jun 2001 [Full text]
WHAT'S IN A NAME?: Gordon Webster
bmj.com, 12 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Reply to our readers: Ron Davis, et al.
bmj.com, 12 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Which accidents are preventable and which are not?: Ed van Beeck, et al.
bmj.com, 12 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Logic and language: Frank Haight
bmj.com, 15 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Problem driving; an accident waiting to happen.: Laurence Jerome
bmj.com, 18 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Accidentally on purpose: Stephen Due
bmj.com, 21 Jun 2001 [Full text]
A Not So Splendid Isolation: Wim Rogmans
bmj.com, 21 Jun 2001 [Full text]
The power of language: Jennifer Mindell
bmj.com, 21 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Safety is not #1: Linda Long
bmj.com, 22 Jun 2001 [Full text]
On indijents and injuries: Eleni Petridou
bmj.com, 22 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Change is inevitable: Gary Kesling
bmj.com, 23 Jun 2001 [Full text]
BMJ bans 'accidents': John Heyworth
bmj.com, 26 Jun 2001 [Full text]
The Word 'Accident': Michael Cox
bmj.com, 28 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Error is no accident: Andrew Lingwood, et al.
bmj.com, 28 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Inevitability vs. Preventability: Leila M Hover
bmj.com, 30 Jun 2001 [Full text]
Imperial accidents and Injuries: John Lascaratos
bmj.com, 7 Jul 2001 [Full text]
How should we rename NAI?: Martin Wiese
bmj.com, 6 Jul 2001 [Full text]
Re: The Word 'Accident': Malcolm Klein
bmj.com, 17 Jul 2001 [Full text]
Accidents of God: John Onorato
bmj.com, 29 Aug 2001 [Full text]