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Drop The "A" Word - Not all crashes are accidents

Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Policy - Riverside PD - Not all crashes are "accidents"

Riverside, Illinois Police Chief Tom Wentzel has established a policy that his officers are avoid use of  "accident" in reference to road crashes.   

NYC and SF have similar policies.  

Monday, September 21, 2015

Writings on #CrashNotAccident

Organizational Support:





Media – Blogs:












Counter Arguments:




**** If we've missed anything, please let us know.  We'll add it.  

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Riverside Police Chief Stands Up for #crashnotaccident

Cynthia Grosse - Riverside Police
Just outside of Chicago today, a drunk driver struck and badly injured an 8 year old boy who was riding his bike in front of his house.   It's this kind of tragedy that makes us cringe when we hear reporters call it an "accident".   

Criminals love that reporters call their crimes "accidents".  

Fortunately, Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel was having none of it.  This from today's (9/17/15) Chicago Tribune. 

"Drunk driving is a violent criminal act and this crash demonstrates that," Weitzel said in a statement. "Make no mistake, this is not an accident. This is a purposeful act, a crash, and it is a crime that is 100 percent preventable.
The Chicago Tribune covered the story well.   Unfortunately, other Chicago media weren't swayed by Chief Weitzel's plea:

  • WLS ABC 7 - Called it an "accident" four times - here
  • Fox 32 - Called it an "accident" twice - here