Take the #CrashNotAccident Pledge to Change How We Report Bike Deaths
Language is important. There’s a reason we lean on euphemisms like “air campaign” and “collateral damage” instead of “bombing” and “civilian death”—these phrases soften the blow and make the violence of war seem more like harmless “military intervention.”
A new campaign by Transportation Alternatives and Families for Safer Streets is arguing that the media use of the term “accident” has a similar softening effect on popular reaction to car crashes, absolving irresponsible drivers of fault in causing damage or death. If you follow cycling news, you’ve probably seen this in headlines about bike fatalities. A distracted driver in an SUV mows down a pair of cyclists riding in the bike lane, and the next day, there’s the headline—“Two Cyclists Dead in Accident with SUV.” With that kind of framing, is it any surprise so many irresponsible drivers get off without a ticket after striking or killing a cyclist? How can a DUI wreck really be labeled an “accident?”
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A recent piece in Wired takes up the argument that mislabeling a car crash removes blame. In “Stop Calling My Daughter’s Death an Accident,” author Hsi-Pei Liao shares the story of an SUV driver striking and killing his three-year-old daughter as she walked across the street with her grandmother, with the right of way. Police didn’t bother to investigate video footage before the death was classified an “accident” and the driver was declared “not guilty.” There was no discussion of whether the incident was preventable—and no blame assigned. Liao’s group, Families for Safer Streets, launched the #CrashNotAccident campaign in response.
“When we say ‘accident,’ we are basically throwing up our hands and saying that the deaths of children like Allison are inevitable, something no one is responsible for, like bad weather,” Liao writes. “We know that the crash that ended our daughter’s life was preventable, as are so many collisions. That’s one reason we say #CrashNotAccident. Another reason is that “accident” is not neutral. It implies a lack of guilt. Yet reporters often use the word in news stories before crash investigations are complete, just as they did in Allison’s case.”
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The two groups—Families for Safe Streets and Transportation Alternatives—have launched a pledge to change the wording on cycling and pedestrian deaths. After all, they argue, do we say “plane accident?”
The language of the pledge elaborates:
“Planes don’t have accidents. They crash. Cranes don’t have accidents. They collapse. And as a society, we expect answers and solutions. Traffic crashes are fixable problems, caused by dangerous streets and unsafe drivers. They are not accidents. Let’s stop using the word 'accident' today.”
To sign the #CrashNotAccident pledge is to state your commitment to not calling traffic crashes "accidents," and to educating others about damage the phrasing can cause. Take the pledge, and take to social media when you see a preventable bike death labeled an “accident.” Find out more at crashnotaccident.com.
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