adablduya

so, i can be parallel parked, decide to whip into the lane of traffic without first looking, and while NOT INTENDING to hit another car, i plow into someone anyway. since i didn't intend to do it, then you would call that an accident ? oh well, sh_t happens, i made a mistake, no problem. no accountability for me.

now, let's enter the real world. it is reasonable to foresee that if i whip into traffic without looking first, i may well hit another car already in the lane. Since that outcome is reasonably foreseeable, then i can modify my behavior (look first to see if the lane is clear), and thus, prevent the result of hitting another car.

or, if i stick my hand into a pile of wood where rattlesnakes are quite likely to be present, it's no accident if i get bitten. foreseeable ? yes. preventable ? yes.

the key here is the concept of "reasonably foreseeable". with any measure at all of analytical, proactive awareness, one can predict a possible undesirable outcome, and behave accordingly in order to prevent it.

in my opinion, the term"accident", even as applied in a dictionary reference, is a (convenient) generalization to describe the undesirable outcome of an incident, whether preventable or not.