CALEDONII

A resource on traffic accidents versus crashes.

By popular demand, a resource on traffic accident vs. crashes.

As the United States Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration explains, a crash is not an accident.

The word accident implies events that are outside of human influence or control, while a crash has a preventable cause.

The difference between a crash and an accident is an important distinction.

Example of a Crash

Consider a very dark night with heavy rain on a US highway with a 65 mph speed limit.

Under the US Basic Speed Law, you must never drive faster than the current weather conditions allow, even if you are below the posted speed limit.

You should reduce your speed by one-third on wet roads. Wet roads are dangerous, so speeds should be reduced to 50 mph or lower.

Other countries have similar laws. In Scotland, for example, dangerous driving is defined in section 2A of the Road Traffic Act 1988, which includes in the definition of dangerous driving "speed, which is particularly inappropriate for the prevailing conditions."

So with that context, the effective legal and common-sense speed for these conditions would be 50 mph or less.

Consider a vehicle whose speed is being tracked in real time by the Life360 app, so its exact travel speed is known.

The driver is tracked driving 70+ mph, exceeding both the stated legal limit and the effective legal limit. It is known that the risk of hydroplaning is significantly elevated above 55 mph. With this rate of speed under these conditions, the driver loses control, hydroplanes, and crashes the vehicle.

In this example, there is a clearly preventable cause: the driver responsible for the crash was driving too fast for the current conditions. At a safer speed, any hazards on the roadway would be more visible, it would be less likely to lose control, and it would be easier to regain control.