Rigpig wrote:
There is a fine line to be trod between:
1. A total blame culture where a witch hunt is initiated at every 'incident' so as to establish culpability and
2. Creating the notion that car crashes are just unfotunate events in which those involved could do nothing to avoid.
Certainly nobody sets out to kill someone on a car journey and if they do its not generally deliberate. But IMHO the word 'accident' creates a convenient societal disconnect with the uncomfortable idea that someone died as a result of someone else's actions; it was just a terrible accident.
However, playing with the language rather than doing anthing tangible about the issue is par for the course with respect to today's policy making processes.
We
know when it was an unfortunate accident and when it was an "incident".
We talk about accidents in the home. My wife tripped on the garden steps the other day. She cut her arm quite badly and needed some hospital treatment .. tetanus booster jab
and a stitch in the wound plus a pain reliever. The cause? She simply had not tied the laces on her gardening shoes properly and they had come undone and she stumbled.
Alice did not blame anyone but herself over this - but said .. "one of those little mishaps in life!"
I once ran after a suspect on foot .. years ago. As I raced around a corner .. I collided with a member of the public and we both fell over each other.
The member of the public .. a middle aged man at the time .. did not start asking me for my details nor did he complain about my knocking him to the ground and winding him. He bruised his arm as did I my own at the time. As it happens - I had to report this incident to my guvs - and the gentleman simply stated in his "witness statement" that it was "just an accident as he just happened to be approaching the corner .. had dodged the criminal running past him .. but did not realise a young cop was in hot foot pursuit and trying his hardest to go catch criminals
" But it my report .. I wrote I
collided with him But it was an accident. I did not intend to do so .. nor in the - well ... it
was the red mist of a pursuit of a serious criminal whom we wanted off the streets if we could get a charge to actually stick at the time One of life's slimier customers at the time.
But I could not have known he was there when I rounded that corner on foot
And on that basis - an accident
So how does the anecdote correlate?
Well.... as I said on the M25 thread .. we do not close a road off for the fun of it We do not do that with an aim of inconveniencing folk. I agree that it will seem very much OTT to those suffering in long jams and very much inconvenienced as a result. I agree that perhaps we could conclude our tests better and perhaps more quickly.
But as a result of all those investigations in situ .. looking at each and every detail - we can supply evidence supporting chance accident and evidence which shows driver error on the part of one or all involved in the incident .. or as in the case of Hayley Day (killer still at large and I still feel very sorry for mahali over this. I wish my Kent colleagues could have found him and brought some justice to that very brave and decent family) - a catalyst who caused because his driving standard was appalling and harmed several other road users.
With an "incident" - we are then looking more at someone who deliberately drove whilst unfit/unlicenced/uninsured. With an "accident" - we are looking at a chance set of circumstances which co-incide to cause disaster. And this is where a coroner will record "accidental death" after all.. and in the case of charges brought against one of the parties involved - this is then recorded as "death as a result of another's dangerous or careless behaviour" per most recent guidelines as I understand them to be ..
You see .. we already have something in place here - which seeks to differentiate to some extent. Now it is not great.. nor is it perfect.
But the good thing about English Law is that it is case built and malleable to change to circumstances. Despite its bad press.
at times because of pee cee silliness at times
But the routines.. the prangs.. the shunts.. the scuffs.. which do not cause injury or perhaps minor/medium and which do not require any police presence.. - these are
accidents and are dealt with simply by exchanging insurance details - and letting those people and civil courts if necessary - deal with any discrepancy over liability.
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) 
of the calibre of those 
As was "Blick" 
but gently placed the spider in a jar und removed it - setting it free outside - so that that wus I am married to could take a bath 