ABSTRACT
As we have stressed in this book, we simply opine that accidents are rare events. According to Webster’s dictionary, an accident is a sudden event that is not planned or intended that causes damage or injury and occurs by chance. It is further defined as an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance. According to this definition, an accident would be a very rare event indeed. With respect to injuries to humans, it is easily noted that so-called accidents would not have a clearly defined root cause because they are unforeseen. In the case of staged accidents, these events are indeed well planned with the intent to defraud the insurance carrier. Consequently, they should not be called accidents but rather one of the other categories that we have listed earlier. We would classify staged accidents as planned events that can be predicted and generally do not cause actual injury. The injuries claimed cannot be corroborated through proper medical evaluations and testing. If the event can be assigned a root cause, prediction, or chain of consequences, then it cannot be classified as an accident. Most incidents actually have a root cause that can be analyzed and often predicted in hindsight. One of the main reasons for analyzing events that injure people is to minimize their impact or to totally eliminate them, which is true for any of the types we have listed. People generally believe that accidents are the least likely events to occur as a type of injury. With those thoughts in mind let us delve a little further into the various types of events that we have outlined.
