How members of the public interpret the wordaccident

Abstract

Objective-To explore what the word accident means to the lay public. This interpretation is of interest because it has been raised by injury control professionals as one justification for discouraging use of that word. Methods-A national telephone survey of 943 adults in the United States was conducted. Respondents were selected at random from households whose phone numbers were generated using random digit dialing techniques. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed to determine if respondent characteristics predicted their interpretations of the word accident. Results-Eighty three per cent of respondents associated preventability with the word accident, and only 26% felt that accidents were controlled by fate. However, 71% thought that accidents could not be predicted, and 4% felt that accidents were done on purpose. Age, education, income, and race emerged as independent predictors of various accident interpretations. Conclusions-Only in the case of "unpredictability" does the public's interpretation of the word accident match many experts' expectations. The concept of "unintentionality" is what seems to be communicated most strongly by use of the word accident. Persistent attempts on the part of injury control professionals to eliminate this word from social discourse may result in unintended consequences, which are discussed. (Injury Prevention 1999;5:19-25)

Prevention Messaging Concerning Safe Storage of Firearms in Media Reports of Pediatric Unintentional Firearm Deaths.

“…In fact the GVA itself categorizes these unintentional shootings as "accidental shootings." While terminology surrounding the use of the term "accident" has a complicated history in the injury eld 30,31 we found that the context in which the term was often used connoted an injury that was not preventable (e.g. " this was just a tragic accident").…”

Social marketing to address attitudes and behaviours related to preventable injuries in British Columbia, Canada

“…Consistent with the literature on public understanding of the word ‘accident’, Preventable found that the intended audience already understood that injuries resulting from ‘accident’ were preventable. 16 Generally, people felt that injuries were the result of taking shortcuts, not thinking ahead or being careless, and even in some cases ‘plain stupidity’. Accordingly, the most common solutions offered were ‘just be more careful’ or ‘be more aware’.…”