Accident

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Unforeseen event, often with a negative outcome

title: "Accident" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["accidents", "safety"] description: "Unforeseen event, often with a negative outcome" topic_path: "general/accidents" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accident" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Unforeseen event, often with a negative outcome ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d6/Green_Bank_300ft_collapsed_telescope.jpg" caption="[[Green Bank Observatory]] radio telescope collapsed when a steel plate cracked in 1988."] ::

An accident is an unintended and usually undesirable event that is not deliberately caused by humans.{{cite web |url=https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accident |title=Accident |work=Merriam-Webster Dictionary |access-date=2025-04-03 |quote=1a. an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance. 1b. lack of intention or necessity : chance. 2a. an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance.}}{{cite journal |url=https://www.ijbmi.org/papers/Vol(8)4/Series-4/A0804040109.pdf |title=Safety Consciousness: An Antidote to Industrial Accidents |last1=Gabriel |first1=J.M.O. |last2=Nwaeke |first2=L.I. |last3=Amah |first3=E. |journal=International Journal of Business and Management Invention |volume=8 |issue=4 |series=IV |date=April 2019 |pages=1–9 |quote=1. a short, sudden and unexpected event or occurrence that results in an unwanted and undesirable outcome ... and must directly or indirectly be the result of human activity rather than a natural event. (Hollnagel, 2004:5). 2. Accidents are the result of technical failures, human errors or organisational problems (Hovden, Albrechtsen and Herrera, 2010:855). 3. An accident as an unplanned and uncontrolled event in which the action or reaction of an object, substance, and person results in personal injury or the productivity thereof (Heinrich, 1959).}} Although in ordinary conversations, intentionality is the only factor most people consider, formally, accidents require three factors: it must be unintended, unpreventable, and unexpected. The term accident usually implies the presence of unrecognized or unaddressed risks. Many researchers and professionals in injury prevention discourage the use of the word accident, because the word accident suggests there is no fault, no guilt, no control, and that the situation could not have been anticipated or prevented. Instead, experts emphasize preventable factors that increase risk and worsen outcomes.{{cite book |last=Robertson |first=Leon S. |title=Injury Epidemiology |edition=Updated 4th |chapter=Chapter 1: Injury and the Role of Epidemiology |year=2022 |publisher=Lulu Books |chapter-url=https://www.nanlee.net/Chapter%201.pdf#page=13 |access-date=2025-03-21 |archive-date=2023-12-01 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231201095143/https://www.nanlee.net/Chapter%201.pdf#page=13 |url-status=live}} For example, while a tree falling in a windstorm may not involve human intention, factors such as its condition, placement, or maintenance may contribute to the outcome. Similarly, most road collisions stem from risky behaviour or preventable circumstances rather than being truly accidental; the perception that they are accidents rather than predictable and preventable events was strengthened in the mid-20th century due to automobile industry influence through media.

In recent years worldwide, the most common causes of accidental deaths have been road traffic incidents and falls. Writing of accidental deaths, one author says the "vast majority of accidents are not really accidents of chance, but rather accidents of folly, negligence, and blatant human misjudgment", with research showing that up to 80% of events that are called accidents are caused by human error. Many different theoretical models have been proposed for analyzing accidents, but no single model has yet proved sufficient for these often-complex events.

Types

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Unintentional_injuries_world_map-Deaths_per_million_persons-WHO2012.svg" caption="Unintentional injury deaths per million persons in 2012, reported nationally:"] ::

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Physical and non-physical

Physical examples of accidents include unintended motor vehicle collisions, malfunctioning machinery, drowning, falling, or unintentional contact with something sharp or hot or electrified or poisonous (including drug overdoses). Unintended pregnancies and unintended scientific discoveries are also sometimes described as accidental.

Non-physical examples include unintentionally revealing a secret or otherwise saying something incorrectly, or forgetting an appointment.

Work and leisure

Accidents during the course of work, or arising out of it, are called work accidents, occupational accidents, or similar terms. According to the International Labour Organization, approximately 400 million accidents happen on the job each year (5% of the world population), causing more than 300,000 deaths annually (especially in mining and construction) and millions of long-term disabilities (especially back injuries).

In contrast, leisure-related accidents are mainly sports injuries, with lower fatality rates.

In process manufacturing, a primary accident (such as leakage, fire or explosion) may propagate to nearby units, resulting in an escalating chain of failure, which is often called a domino effect accident.

Commercial products sometimes emerge from accidental discoveries, famously including penicillin, Post-it notes, and microwave ovens. Injuries that occur during travel to or from employment are sometimes counted statistically as work accidents, but are usually classified separately as transportation accidents instead.

Transportation

Aviation

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/08/ACRO_fatalities.svg" caption="Peacetime aviation accidents have decreased substantially since peaking in the 1970s, despite much more air travel today."] ::

Main article: Aviation accidents and incidents

Aviation safety has improved dramatically through decades of concerted effort. Although individual crashes can have high fatality counts and widespread publicity, modern air travel has approximately just 1 fatal crash per 16 million commercial flights (as of 2024), or 1 death per 35 billion passenger-kilometers (22 billion miles), far better than historical rates, and generally the safest way to travel a given distance over land. Airplane accidents occur most commonly during the landing process.

Bicycles and motorcycles

Main article: Bicycle safety, Motorcycle safety

Unenclosed two-wheel vehicles are more economical but less visible than the much larger cars and trucks on the road, and bikes offer their riders little protection from collision or weather or hazardous road conditions. For these reasons, bicycle or motorcycle travel typically has multiple times the risk of car travel over a given distance. Electric bikes present the further risk of accidental fire from the overheating of their powerful batteries, especially from lower-quality manufacturers.

Maritime

Water transportation accidents are far too diverse for any simple generalization or statistic. Modern mega-cruise ships are akin to slow-motion cities, where accidental deaths are dwarfed by ordinary heart attacks and strokes. At the opposite extreme of size, technology, and regulation, refugee boats and whitewater kayaks are much riskier than luxury cruise ships. Ferries overloaded with impoverished crowds capsize regularly, and so do the sailboats of wealthy adventurers, and cargo ships in hazardous waters. Any attempt to summarize maritime accidents would need to recognize all these differences and more.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0a/Road-deaths-by-type.png" caption="Road deaths steadily exceed 1 million per year worldwide; more than half are pedestrians, cyclists, or motorcyclists."] ::

Road traffic

Main article: Traffic collision

Most vehicle collisions are triggered by preventable driver behaviors such as drunk, drowsy, distracted, or dangerously fast driving, and are not true accidents in the strictest sense. 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 by automotive safety. The automobile industry accomplished this by writing customized articles about local collisions as a free service for newspapers that used the industry's preferred language. Since 1994, the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has asked media and the public not to use the word accident to describe vehicle collisions.

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Train_wreck_at_Montparnasse_1895.jpg" caption="[[Montparnasse derailment]] in 1895"] ::

Trains

Main article: Railway accident

For a given distance, passenger trains (and also buses) are considerably safer than car traffic, although riskier than commercial aircraft. Major rail accidents can also arise from freight trains, carrying bulk quantities of hazardous cargo but few people. Unlike most other transportation accidents, a large fraction of train casualties are people out along the route, not riding on the train itself.

Common causes

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Accidents.svg" caption="Rate of accidents requiring medical care, sorted by activity and age (Denmark, 2002)"] ::

According to the World Health Organization, globally more than 3 million accidental deaths occur in a typical year. The most common causes are road traffic incidents (1.2 million annual deaths, especially for young males) and falls (0.7 million annual deaths, especially for elderly females). Both fatal and nonfatal accident rates in developing countries are at least double the per-capita rates in high-income countries. British statistics indicate that accidental deaths were much less frequent before high-powered machinery began to spread with the Industrial Revolution of the late 1700s.

The United States collects detailed statistical injury data (sampled from 100 hospitals) through the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System administered by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. 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 annual National Health Interview Survey by the CDC's National Center for Health Statistics. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics website includes extensive data on workplace accidents.

Analytical models

Accident models Many theoretical models to characterize and analyze accidents have been proposed, which can be classified by type. Most accidents have no single cause, and no single model is the sole correct approach for analyzing them. Notable models include: ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Pyramid_of_risks.svg" caption="Sequential models, often depicted as [[accident triangle]]s, were proposed for relating the proportions of minor and major incidents. These included Heinrich's triangle (1931)<ref name="Heinrich 1931" /> and Frank E. Bird's accident ratio triangle (proposed in 1966 and shown above)."] ::

  • Sequential models
    • Domino theory
    • Loss causation model
  • Complex linear models
    • Energy damage model
    • Time sequence models
      • Generalized time sequence model
      • Accident evolution and barrier function
    • Epidemiological models
      • Public health analysis
      • "Resident pathogens" metaphor
  • Process models
    • Multilinear events sequencing
  • Systemic models
  • Non-linear models
    • System accident
    • Systems-theoretic accident model and process (STAMP)
    • Functional resonance analysis method (FRAM)
    • Assertions that all existing models are insufficient for complex systems

Ishikawa diagrams are sometimes used to illustrate root-cause analysis and five whys discussions.

References

References

  1. (2009). "Encyclopedia of Death & Human Experience".
  2. Lee, Barbara C.. (2024-04-02). "Child Farm Injuries are Never “Accidents”". Journal of Agromedicine.
  3. International Labour Organization. (2023-11-26). "A call for safer and healthier working environments".
  4. (2024-03-01). "Global-, regional- and country-level estimates of the work-related burden of diseases and accidents in 2019". Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health.
  5. (February 2025). "Annual Safety Report – 2024". [[IATA]].
  6. (January 2025). "Air Passenger Monthly Analysis – December 2024". IATA.
  7. Armstrong, Martin. (2024-01-09). "Most Airplane Accidents Happen During Landing". IATA/Statista.
  8. (February 2018). "Pedestrians and Cyclists – 2018". European Union.
  9. (June 2023). "Traffic Safety Facts – 2021 Data: Motorcycles". US Department of Transportation.
  10. Frey, Kevin. (2025-02-04). "Gillibrand, Schumer, Torres reintroduce lithium-ion battery safety bill". Spectrum News NY1.
  11. (April 2023). "CDC Yellow Book 2024". Oxford University Press.
  12. Black, Julia. (2024). "A decade of documenting migrant deaths". UN: International Organization for Migration.
  13. Fiore, David C.. (December 2003). "Injuries Associated With Whitewater Rafting and Kayaking". Wilderness and Environmental Medicine.
  14. (2024-12-21). "38 people are dead and over 100 missing in Congo after a ferry capsizes on the Busira River". Associated Press.
  15. Gendell, David. (2001-05-29). "Executives Face the Elements as Yacht Race Turns Deadly". The Wall Street Journal.
  16. (2023-01-25). "Cargo ship sinks off Japan, leaving two dead, nine missing". Reuters.
  17. Stromberg, Joseph. (2015-07-20). "We don't say 'plane accident.' We shouldn't say 'car accident' either.".
  18. "Deaths by Transportation Mode". National Safety Council.
  19. Brend, Yvette. (2023-02-28). "Train disaster risks high, despite dire warnings like toxic Ohio crash, Lac-Mégantic tragedy". CBC News.
  20. Kille, Leighton Walter. (2014-10-05). "Transportation safety over time: Cars, planes, trains, walking, cycling". Harvard University.
  21. "Railway safety statistics in the EU". European Union.
  22. World Health Organization. (2022). "Preventing injuries and violence: an overview".
  23. (2010). "The Global Burden of Unintentional Injuries and an Agenda for Progress". Epidemiologic Reviews.
  24. (January 1996). "Accidents and Acts of God: A History of the Terms". American Journal of Public Health.
  25. CPSC. "National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS)".
  26. CDC/NCHS. "Emergency Department Visits".
  27. "Injuries, Illnesses, and Fatalities".
  28. Taylor, G.A.. (2004). "Enhancing Occupational Safety and Health". Elsevier.
  29. (2017). "Prevention of Accidents and Unwanted Occurrences: Theory, Methods, and Tools in Safety Management". CRC Press.
  30. (2012). "OHS Body of Knowledge". Safety Institute of Australia.
  31. Heinrich, H.W.. (1931). "Industrial Accident Prevention". McGraw-Hill.
  32. (1985). "Practical Loss Control Leadership". International Loss Control Institute.
  33. Gibson, James J.. (1961). "Behavioural Approaches to Accident Research".
  34. Haddon, William Jr. (April 1973). "Energy damage and the ten countermeasure strategies". Journal of Trauma.
  35. Viner, Derek. (1991). "Accident analysis and risk control".
  36. Svenson, Ola. (September 1991). "The Accident Evolution and Barrier Function (AEB) Model Applied to Incident Analysis in the Processing Industries". Risk Analysis.
  37. Gordon, John E.. (April 1949). "The Epidemiology of Accidents". American Journal of Public Health.
  38. Reason, James T.. (1991). "Near Miss Reporting as a Safety Tool". Butterworth-Heinemann.
  39. Benner, Ludwig Jr. (June 1975). "Accident Investigations: Multilinear Events Sequencing Methods". Journal of Safety Research.
  40. (May 1974). "Mental Procedures in Real-Life Tasks: A Case Study of Electronic Trouble Shooting". Ergonomics.
  41. (1994). "Behind Human Error: Cognitive Systems, Computers, and Hindsight".
  42. Perrow, Charles. (1984). "Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies". Basic Books.
  43. Leveson, Nancy. (April 2004). "A new accident model for engineering safer systems". [[Safety Science]].
  44. Hollnagel, Erik. "Functional Resonance Analysis Method".
  45. Hollnagel, Erik. (2012). "FRAM – The Functional Resonance Analysis Method". Ashgate.
  46. Dekker, Sidney. (2011). "Drift into Failure: From Hunting Broken Components to Understanding Complex Systems".

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