Skip to content
CityLab
Government

Rising U.S. Crash Deaths Are No Accident

In a new book, Jessie Singer connects the surge in fatalities from car crashes, fires, and inadvertent shootings to governmental inaction and social inequality. 

As vehicle collisions have climbed in the U.S., so have calls to rethink federal safety regulations. 

As vehicle collisions have climbed in the U.S., so have calls to rethink federal safety regulations. 

Photographer: MediaNews Group/Daily Times via Getty Images

By

From

It’s difficult to talk about an involuntary death — from a drug overdose or a car crash, for instance — without saying “accident.”

The word is so ingrained in the English language that even those who worry that its usage biases people toward inaction (“there was nothing we could’ve done”) still find themselves saying it.