What is an accident
An accident is something that happens unexpectedly to hurt a person. If you hit somebody and he hits you back and hurts you, that is not an accident because you should have expected it. But if you climb on a rickety chair to reach something, and the chair lets you fall and hurt yourself, that is called an accident because you did not expect it—at least, it is supposed that if you had expected to fall you would not have climbed on the chair.
An accident is something that happens unexpectedly to hurt a person. If you hit somebody and he hits you back and hurts you,
that is not an accident because you should have expected it. But if you climb on a rickety chair to reach something, and the chair lets you fall and hurt yourself, that is called an accident because you did not expect it—at least, it is supposed that if you had expected to fall you would not have climbed on the chair. In the United States alone, nearly 100,000 persons are killed in accidents every year, and for every one person who dies in an accident there are about 100 who are hurt in accidents but do not die. This means there must be nearly ten million Americans who are hurt in accidents every year.
The biggest group of those who are killed, about 35,000, die in automobile accidents of one kind or another, and the second biggest group, about 25,000, die as a result of accidents at home. Floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, and other acts of nature are not classed as accidents. Long ago, there were many people who believed that accidents were the will of God and could not be prevented. Since then they have learned that most accidents are not accidents at all, but happen because someone is careless. There will always be some accidents, but nearly all accidents could be prevented if people were more careful. Yet during World War II, more people were hurt by accidents in the United States than were injured in battle.
An organization called the National Safety Council, with headquarters in Chicago, spends all its time trying to teach people how to be more careful and avoid accidents. Big factories, automobile companies, and many others who are interested in preventing accidents at work and on the road, spend millions of dollars every year to prevent accidents. They have a good reason to do this. When a worker in a factory is hurt, the factory produces less and makes less money. Automobile accidents and home accidents, too, keep people away from work and cost the whole country money in lost time as well as in doctors' bills and hospital expenses. Everyone, men and women, boys and girls, will be better off if there are fewer accidents. The pictures on these pages show some of the ways to avoid accidents. Riding bicycles on highways need not cause accidents if traffic rules are carefully obeyed, but these riders should be in single file at the side of the street. AU Photographs by National Safety Council
