A lot of cycling activists seem to think that “accident” implies no-fault, inaction, and helplessness, and that forcing journalists to reword their articles will somehow make things better. That’s a flawed approach.

Journalists aren’t in the business of assigning blame in their coverage. Unless one a court or an official investigator has made a ruling, doing so would open them up to libel lawsuits. Advocating for more vivid wording is pointless. That’s not how journalism works, nor is it how linguistics works.

Commercial aviation is now the safest form of transportation by far, having made tremendous improvements over the years thanks to implementing recommendations from accident investigations like the one I cited. The same can be done for cycling. Believing that language change is a prerequisite to improvements in safety is a harmful mindset. It would be better to redirect that energy where it belongs: getting the lawmakers and infrastructure planners to take action to reduce the accident rate.