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List of All Topics
Accidents
An accident is an event that occurs unexpectedly and unintentionally. Physical examples include unintended collisions or falls, being injured by touching something sharp, hot, or electric, or ingesting poison. Non-physical examples are unintentionally revealing a secret or otherwise saying something incorrectly, forgetting an appointment, etc.
50,425 people were killed in accidents (not including car accidents) in the U.S. in 1995, which is 19 people in 100,000.
Often, accidents are investigated so that we can learn how to avoid them in the future. This is sometimes called root cause analysis, but does not generally apply to accidents that cannot be predicted with any certainty. For example, a root cause of a purely random incident may never be identified, and thus future similar accidents remain "accidental."
The informal term "freak accident" may refer to an unfortunate event that may seem exceedingly unlikely to happen by chance. This term may be used to imply doubts about whether the event actually was an accident
Car Accidents
A car accident or car crash is an incident in which an automobile collides with anything that causes damage to the automobile, including other automobiles, telephone poles, buildings or trees, or in which the driver loses control of the vehicle and damages it in some other way, such as driving into a ditch or rolling over. Sometimes a car accident may also refer to an automobile striking a human or animal. Car crashes — also called road traffic accidents (RTAs), traffic collisions, auto accidents, road accidents, personal injury collisions, motor vehicle accidents (MVAs), — kill an estimated 1.2 million people worldwide each year, and injure about forty times this number (WHO, 2004). In the UK the Department of Transport publish road deaths in each type of vehicle. These statistics are available as "Risk of injury measured by percentage of drivers injured in a two car injury accident." These statistics show a ten to one ratio of in-vehicle accident deaths between the least safe and most safe models of car.
The statistics show[citation needed] that for popular, lightly built cars, occupants have a 6–8% chance of death in a two-car accident. (e.g. BMW 3 series 6%, Subaru Impreza 8%, Honda Accord 6%). Traditional "safety cars" such as the Volvos halve that chance (Volvo 700 4% incidence of death, Volvo 900 3%).
The Toyota Land Cruiser SUV has a 6% incidence of occupant death in actual crashes. However, in multiple-vehicle crashes SUVs are not much more lethal than passenger cars.
Although, rollovers are much more common in older SUVs as compared to passenger cars because of their top weight. For this reason SUVs actually post a greater threat to rollover and cause a fatality rather than passenger cars. Newer SUVs such as the Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8 have a lower center of gravity and enhanced stability control programs which lower the risk of rollover substantially.
Overall the four best vehicles to be in are the Jaguar XJ series 1%, Mercedes-Benz S-Class / SEC 1%, Land Rover Defender 1% and Land Rover Discovery 1%.[citation needed]
Motorcyclist deaths within England and Wales stand at 53% of the annual road death statistics. Scooters/mopeds up to 50cc only account for 3% of those deaths. 2% of the scooter deaths were 16–19 year olds who had not taken CBT (Compulsory Basic Training). (Statistics taken from 2004/2005 DSA annual road deaths percentages)
Workplace Accidents
About Accidents at Work
If you are unfortunate enough to be involved in an accident at work, which was not your fault and you suffer from a workplace injury, you may be able to make a personal injury claim for compensation.
As with all personal injury compensation claims, you would need to prove that your injury, illness or disease was caused as a result of the negligence of another party (in this case your employer) and once you appoint a personal injury solicitor, they will assist you in compiling your evidence and presenting it to the third party insurers.
Every personal injury compensation claim is very different and while some are settled within a matter of months, others can take years. Most claims for workplace accidents and workplace injuries are settled out of Court; however, some will need to progress this far.