There Are No Accidents

The Deadly Rise of Injury and Disaster -- Who Profits and Who Pays the Price

320 pages

English language

Published March 12, 2022 by Simon & Schuster.

ISBN:
978-1-9821-2966-8
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5 stars (1 review)

We hear it all the time: “Sorry, it was just an accident.” And we’ve been deeply conditioned to just accept that explanation and move on. But as Jessie Singer argues convincingly: There are no such things as accidents. The vast majority of mishaps are not random but predictable and preventable. Singer uncovers just how the term “accident” itself protects those in power and leaves the most vulnerable in harm’s way, preventing investigations, pushing off debts, blaming the victims, diluting anger, and even sparking empathy for the perpetrators.

As the rate of accidental death skyrockets in America, the poor and people of color end up bearing the brunt of the violence and blame, while the powerful use the excuse of the “accident” to avoid consequences for their actions. Born of the death of her best friend, and the killer who insisted it was an accident, this book is a moving investigation …

4 editions

Essential reading

5 stars

This book is a profound and compassionate response to a horrific "accident" (crash) that killed the author's best friend. Singer digs deep into U.S. society's flawed notion of "accidents" and unpacks the conditions that make these "accidents" inevitable, the biases that block us from seeing them clearly and the obstacles to preventing them. I'd recommend this to everyone really, but particularly anyone involved/interested in government, city planning, harm reduction, and societal systems. The more we know, the more we can work toward prevention.