ACCIDENT
10 Leading Causes of Death in the United States in 2000
The word accident is derived from the Latin verb accidere, signifying “fall upon, befall, happen, chance.” In its most commonly accepted meaning, or in its ordinary or popular sense, the word may be defined as meaning: some sudden and unexpected event taking place without expectation, upon the instant, rather than something that continues, progresses or develops; something happening by chance; something unforeseen, unexpected, unusual, extraordinary, or phenomenal, taking place not according to the usual course of things or events, out of the range of ordinary calculations; that which exists or occurs abnormally, or an uncommon occurrence. The word may be employed as denoting a calamity, casualty, catastrophe, disaster, an undesirable or unfortunate happening; any unexpected personal injury resulting from any unlooked for mishap or occurrence; any unpleasant or unfortunate occurrence that causes injury, loss, suffering, or death; some untoward occurrence aside from the usual course of events. An event that takes place without one’s foresight or expectation; an undesigned, sudden, and unexpected event.
Accident is not always a precise legal term. It may be used generally in reference to various types of mishaps, or it may be given a technical meaning that applies when used in a certain statute or kind of case.Where it is used in a general sense, no particular significance can be attached to it.Where it is precisely defined, as in a statute, that definition strictly controls any decision about whether a certain event covered by that statute was in fact an accident.
In its most limited sense, the word accident is used only for events that occur without the intervention of a human being. This kind of accident also may be called an act of God. It is an event that no person caused or could have prevented—such as a tornado, a tidal wave, or an ice storm. An accident insurance policy can by its terms be limited to coverage only for this type of accident. Damage by hail to a field of wheat may be considered such an accident.
Emergency workers attend to a woman involved in a singlecar accident. Crashes such as this one are considered accidents unless a driver intentionally causes the crash.
A policy of insurance, by its very nature, covers only accidents and not intentionally caused
injuries. That principle explains why courts will read some exceptions into any insurance policy, whether or not they are expressly stated. For example, life insurance generally will not compensate for a suicide, and ordinary automobile insurance will not cover damages sustained when the owner is drag racing.
Accident insurance policies frequently insure not only against an act of God but also for accidents caused by a person’s carelessness. An insured homeowner will expect coverage, for example, if someone drowns in his or her pool, even though the accident might have occurred because someone in the family left the gate open.
Not every unintended event is an accident
for which insurance benefits can be paid; all the
circumstances in a particular case must first be
considered. For example, a policeman who
waded into a surging crowd of forty or fifty
fighting teenagers and then experienced a heart
attack was found to have suffered from an acci-
dent. In another case, a man who was shot when
he was found in bed with another man’s wife
was also found to have died in an accident
because death is not the usual or expected result
of ADULTERY. However, the family of another
man was not allowed to collect insurance bene-
fits when he was shot after starting a fight with a
knife. In that case, the court ruled that DEADLY
FORCE was a predictable response to a life-
threatening attack, whether the instigator actu-
ally anticipated it or not.
Different states apply different standards
when determining if an accident justifies pay-
ment of benefits under WORKERS’ COMPENSA-
TION. Some states strictly limit benefits to events
that clearly are accidents. They will permit pay-
ment when a sudden and unexpected strain
causes an immediate injury during the course of
work but they will not permit payment when an
injury gradually results from prolonged assaults
on the body. Under this approach, a worker who
is asphyxiated by a lethal dose of carbon monox-
ide when he goes into a blast furnace to make
repairs would be deemed to have suffered in an
accident. However, a worker who contracts lung
cancer after years of exposure to irritating dust
in a factory could not claim to have been injured
in an accident. Because of the remedial purpose
of workers’ compensation schemes, many states
are liberal in allowing compensation. In one
state, a woman whose existing arthritic condi-
tion was aggravated when she took a job stuffing
giblets into partially frozen chickens on a con-
veyor belt was allowed to collect workers’ com-
pensation benefits.
Insurance policies may set limits to the amount of benefits recoverable for one accident. A certain automobile insurance policy allowed a maximum of only $200 to compensate for damaged clothing or luggage in the event of an accident.When luggage was stolen from the insured automobile, however, a court ruled that the event was not an accident and the maximum did not apply. The owner was allowed to recover the full value of the lost property.
Sometimes the duration of an accident must be determined. For example, if a drunken driver hit one car and then continued driving until he or she collided with a truck, a court might have to determine whether the two victims will share the maximum amount of money payable under the driver’s liability insurance policy or whether each will collect the full maximum as a result of a separate accident.
CROSS-REFERENCES
Automobiles “No-Fault Automobile Insurance” (In Focus);
Automobiles “What to Do If You Are in an Auto Accident” (Sidebar); Insurance.
