Accidents


 * For alternate meanings, see: Accident (fallacy), Accident (philosophy), Accident (film), Accident, Maryland, and Car 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.