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a clear, warm Sunday afternoon.
Traffic was light.
J
was en route to
play in my regular soccer match,
just like so many times before, and
suddenly it happened!
lt
was an accident.
An Accident·prone Wo rld
We've all heard the statistics and
stories about the toll accidents take
personally and monetarily.
While researching this article
l 've waded through grisly accounts
of how carelessness, machinery
malfunctions, substance abuse and
killed and about 340 will suffer a
disabling injury. On the average,
11 accidental deaths and about
1,030 disabling injuries occur every
hour during the year.
We live, it would seem, in a very
accident-prone world. But what is
an accident?
An accident, in basic terms, can
be defined as a mis take, an un–
planned and unexpected occur–
rence. Its victim or victims do not
consciously plan a n automobile
wreck, a crippli ng injury on the job
or a destructive fire . Otherwise
B e aware of hazards and work to
they aren' t observant enough , or
because equipment is poorly main–
tained .
1
vividly remember the case of a
3-year-old who, left unattended by
parents and older siblings, tumbled
down a fligh t of concrete stairs a nd
suffered a dee p head cut that
required several stitches. The
wound left a scar that this man car–
ries with him to this day, more than
20 yea r s Jater. The acc ident
occurred because of lack of supervi–
sion of a toddler.
There is a cause for every effect ,
whether or not we are
conscious of each cause.
But when we ove r–
neutralize them. At borne, don't leave children's
toys on steps.
Jook--or refuse to see–
the causes operating in
various events, the "acci-
dent" explanation seems
to remove responsibility
from us. This course has
lack of caution have caused injury,
death and financia! loss.
(n the United States, for exam–
ple, the National Safety Council
estimated that 90,000 people were
killed by accident . in 1983, with
auto accidents accounting for near–
ly half the total. Disabling acci–
dents numbered 8.5 million, in–
cluding 330,000 that caused sorne
degree of permanent impai rment ,
ranging from partial loss of use of a
fi nger to blindness or complete
crippling. The bill for these trage–
dies? About $91,300,000,000.
Accidents are the fourth Jeading
cause of death in the United States,
exceeded only by heart disease,
cancer and strokes, and are the No.
1
cause of death among people aged
1
to 38.
Think of it! While one is reading
this article, four people will be
6
these events wouldn't be
accidents.
I'm sure others who
have been involved in
serious acc idents have
faced the same questions
that haunted me a fter my
car crash: Why me? Why
now?
If
only
1
had hesi–
tated five more seconds
somewhere- if only
I
had
turned down a different
street- if only 1 had seen
it coming ...
But all the after-the–
fact reflec tion doesn ' t
change anything. The accident
did
happen.
But the connotation associated
with the word
accident
can shroud
a most important truth: There is a
cause fo r every effect.
Effect s and Causes
When we hear the term
accident
we somehow tend to assume that
the event described "just hap–
pened"-that there was no reason
for it and no way to stop it. Logical –
ly, this cannot be the case.
Consider: Traffic mishaps occur
because traffic laws are broken , sig–
nals malfunction or driving condi–
tions are poor. Drownings take
place because people don't know
how to swim or because they don't
j udge risks corrcctly. Electrocu–
tions happen because people don 't
take proper precauti ons, because
led humanity as a wbole to avoid
admitting and changing the real
causes of many of the most pressing
problems facing not only individu–
als, but the world.
And so life on earth can now be
ended in an "accidental" nuclear
holocaust, as if no identifiable and
preventable chain of events led us
to this point!
Sure, sorne events are bound to
happen unexpectedly. L igh tn ing
may stri ke an unsuspecting person
in an open field. A cook's knife
may slip and cut bis hand. But
there was a definite cause for the
event in each case.
The point is this: If we force our–
selves to become more sensit ive to
risks and potential dangers, we can
make ourselves much Jess accident–
prone. We can stay out of open
fields during threatening storms.
We can pay closer attention when
using knives, and make sure we use
them only as they are intended to
be used .
Therc are reasons why elevatcd
hotel wa lkway s collapse, why
planes cras h, why infant poisonings
occu r. There are reasons why sick–
ening automobile acciden ts like
mine occur- why thousands of
people suffer painful physical and
financia! losses every year- even if
we don't--or don' t want lo-figure
those reasons out and face them.
What we are interested in is
(Continued on page 42)
The PLAIN TRUTH