Accident

An accident is when something goes wrong when it is not meant to. Physical accidents are things like collisions, injuries, and falling. Non-physical accidents are things like telling someone a secret without meaning to, forgetting something important, or deleting an important computer file.

Road accidents kill thousands of people each month in the United States, and thousands each week in the world. They injure more thousands each week. The majority involve a car but there are also many bus, truck and bicycle accidents. Aircraft crashes, ship sinkings and other transport accidents also attract much attention.

Injuries from accidents, however, are more numerous at home than elsewhere. They attract less attention because only a few people are hurt at a time.

Often, accidents are investigated so that we can learn how to avoid them in the future. Sometimes by studying an accident we can discover new things, for example penicillin.

Most of the deaths resulting from injuries are caused by fire accidents. Thus, accidental fires are one of the leading causes of unintentional deaths. The main cause of death in fire incidents is burning, but inhalation of smoke and toxic gas causes death as well. Often the cause of the fire is very simple and unexpected, such as forgetting a candle near something flammable, defect in the hardware, or old electrical wires. So most of the large fires are caused by simple reasons.^[1]

1. ↑ "Fire Accidents". lawyers and settlements. Retrieved 12 March 2015.