Comments on: Or You Might Call it Attempted Homicide

By: firefighter

firefighter — Sun, 01 Oct 2006 02:34:51 +0000

Public safety workers, including police officers, firefighters, paramedics and 9-1-1 dispatchers are also dropping the word “accident.”

As a firefighter of 12 years, I can attest that of the literally hundreds of injurious, damaging and sometimes fatal motor vehicle incidents I’ve seen, the truly “accidental” can be counted on one hand.

By: NoLandGrab

NoLandGrab — Mon, 22 May 2006 23:16:00 +0000

Shall we sic Norman Oder on the Grey Lady to extract a correction?

By: Dope on the Slope

Dope on the Slope — Mon, 22 May 2006 03:12:00 +0000

At least they could have used the word “assault” or “attack.”

Reminds me of that old Disney short “Motor Mania” featuring Goofy as the civil “Mr. Walker” vs. the homicidal maniac “Mr. Wheeler.”

I doubt very seriously a film like “Motor Mania” would get made today, even though the lessons are even more relevant.

Instead we get Pixar’s feature length “Cars.”

By: Mitch

Mitch — Fri, 19 May 2006 21:20:00 +0000

“Iraqcident” implies that the mess over there is nobody’s fault. I prefer “Qrash.”

By: Eric M.

Eric M. — Fri, 19 May 2006 21:06:00 +0000

Thanks for putting that up. It has inspired me to coin a new term: Iraqcidentâ„¢.

By: Mitch

Mitch — Fri, 19 May 2006 19:58:00 +0000

It should be noted that traffic engineers seem to be dropping “accident” from their vocabulary, on the theory that most such mishaps are somebody’s fault, even if no harm was intended. In Wisconsin, the preferred term is “crash;” the State DOT even went to the trouble a few years ago of changing the wording on existing signs.

Maybe the New York Times style manual needs to be updated.

By: Sean

Sean — Fri, 19 May 2006 19:38:00 +0000

Maybe they’re thinking that someone stupid enough to buy an SUV lacks the mental capacity to form the requisite intent to commit attempted homicide.

Or something like that.

By: futurebird

futurebird — Fri, 19 May 2006 04:08:00 +0000

Oh. My. God. That’s like saying that some guy who drunkenly beat five people half to death with his unbrella “got in an unbrella accident”