Dear Mr. Naparstek: The Times ordinarily relies on the Police Department for statistics on traffic fatalities, and accepts the department’s definition of that term. I realize that the reporting standards of other city agencies, and private groups, may differ. For precisely that reason, the correction attributed the figure of 21 fatalities for 2005 to the police.

I see no problem with the word "accident" to describe the majority of crashes, since, as you say, in most cases no one is to blame. If someone is charged with a crime — a hit and run, for example — we avoid calling it an "accident," although mistakes do occur from time to time. In this most recent case, the police determined that neither the cyclist nor the truck driver was at fault, and issued no tickets.

Thank you for writing.

Thus, it is baffling that the NYPD (as reported by the esteemed Noah Budnick at TA)would exclude cyclist fatalities that do not involve moving motor vehicles from their total. The PD should be asked to include all cycling fatalities in their totals, as they do motor vehicle fatalities.