Accident Trends

Is Apple guilty? Arden Dier posted an article in the NEWSER on December 29, 2016, entitled “Parents Sue, Blame FaceTime for Death of Daughter.” The article describes the tragic death of a 5-year-old girl who died as a result of a car slamming into the back of the vehicle the girl was riding in. According to Dier’s report, the driver of the offending vehicle was a twenty-two year old whose FaceTime app was still active when police arrived at the crash scene.  He is now facing a manslaughter charge. The [...]

When should the word "accident" be replaced with "crash"? In my practice as a clinical and forensic psychologist specializing in trauma resulting from vehicular crashes we often use the word accident to describe the event. However, often the traumatic event was not the result of behaviors that are unintentional in the sense of some level of personal negligence can be attributed. Such behaviors that could be considered negligent would include drinking, drugging, texting, speeding, and driving while fatigued. The need to use the word crash was highlighted in a 1997 campaign initiated by the [...]