Cindy Mense, Trailnet: Use "crash" not "accident" when a person driving a vehicle injures or kills another | stltoday.com

Headlines are quick hits from media outlets from Missouri and around the world. Follow the headline link for the full story. The source of this headline says:

This report and these individual deaths highlight the serious problem of people in cars killing people walking and biking in our region.

Language matters. When media outlets call preventable traffic deaths accidents, it makes these deaths seem random and unavoidable. Road conditions, road design and on-road behavior come together to cause these deaths. We need to stop calling these tragedies accidents.

Everyone should use people-first language when talking about traffic safety, and particularly traffic deaths: A person driving a truck, hit and killed a person riding a bike.

The Associated Press advises in its stylebook to “avoid accident, which can be read as exonerating the person responsible.”

Already the Missouri Highway Patrol has replaced “accident” with “crash” in their official reporting. Crashes have causes and they are preventable.

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Cindy Mense, Trailnet: Use "crash" not "accident" when a person driving a vehicle injures or kills another | stltoday.com