Or "collision."

"Accident" implies that something occurred unintentionally. Now obviously the driver did not intend to hit someone... but was the driver actually paying attention, or had they directed their attention to some task other than driving... If so, then they intentionally chose to no longer pay attention to driving, and the result was a collision, not an accident.

The fact is that laws and signals pretty much cover all traffic situations, and if drivers actually paid attention to what they were doing behind the wheel, there would be few, if any "accidents."

Of course the evidence shows otherwise, and 40,000 people die each year due to preventable collisions, that are often mistakenly called "accidents." 1/3 of these collisions are due to inattention, 1/3 are due to excessive speed, and 1/3 are alcohol related in some fashion. The most common type of collision is rear ending someone... (these rough numbers were taken from NHTSA and FARS data)

Slow down and don't drink and drive and you have already prevented 2/3s of all possible collisions.