“Accidents”
Opinion: Why We Should Stop Using the Word ‘Micromobility’
"SUVs, pick-up trucks, and passenger cars should not be the benchmark by which we judge the size of other forms of transit, and the term ‘micromobility’ encourages us to believe that they are."
June 12, 2023
EXCERPT: There are No ‘Accidents’ — We Have Been Fooled into Thinking There Are
This excerpt from the new book, "There Are No Accidents: The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster — Who Profits and Who Pays the Price" will make you rethink crashes, capitalism and culpability.
February 15, 2022
That Viral Dodge Ad Isn’t the First Time Automakers Compared Drivers to ‘Predators’
A new viral Dodge seems like a new low for the notoriously toxic automaker — but it’s just the latest chapter in the company's promotion of the deadliest driving behaviors.
January 13, 2022
Streetsblog 101: How Media Help Build Car Culture
Journalists reinforce anti-sustainable transportation sentiment in all kinds of ways — but they don't have to.
March 5, 2020
Associated Press Cautions Journalists That Crashes Aren’t Always “Accidents”
The Associated Press has tweaked its guidance for journalists about when to call traffic collisions "accidents."
April 4, 2016
This Is What Passes for Traffic “Justice” in America
Here's a great example of how American law enforcement tends to produce perverse results when it comes to traffic collisions.
August 26, 2015
Meet a Police Chief Who Actually Says Reckless Driving Won’t Be Tolerated
If only more police officials took dangerous driving as seriously as Frank Koss, chief of police in Hinesburg, Vermont. An outraged Koss took to the pages of his local paper this week after a 17-year-old driver killed a local cyclist, saying "this was not an accident."
May 22, 2015
The Oregonian: Run a Red Light and Kill 3 Kids? “Just a Tragic Accident”
In February, a pickup truck driver in suburban Eugene, Oregon, ran through a red light at 40 miles an hour, killing three children -- 4-year-old Tyler Hudson, 5-year-old McKenzie Hudson, and 8-year-old John Day -- and critically injuring their mother. The family was walking with the right-of-way in a crosswalk, returning from getting ice cream.
May 13, 2015
Even When a Driver Intentionally Causes Mayhem, Media Call It an “Accident”
The New York Police Department stopped using the term "accident" to refer to car collisions because it conveys the "connotation that there is no fault or liability." In the press, however, "accident" remains standard practice, even when a driver rams another person on purpose.
April 16, 2015
Trucker in Tracy Morgan Crash: Lay Off, It Was an “Accident”
Kevin Roper, the Walmart trucker who reportedly slammed into a limo bus carrying several comedians early Saturday morning, is having his say on Twitter. He wants the world to know that the crash that killed James “Uncle Jimmy Mack” McNair and critically injured Tracy Morgan and three others was an "accident."
June 10, 2014