Quote Originally Posted by monday21
Graeme, I am curious as to why the police have dropped the word accident? And how do the police know that “most accidents are avoidable”? Of course I agree that we can all take precautionary measures to lower the risk of an accident in any situation. A road user who pulls out in front of another vehicle has in all probability done so unintentionally, so is it not therefore, fair to say that the accident occurred due to a lack of concentration?
Yes, I would agree Ken, in the case where someone pulls out carelessy from a side junction this is almost certainly unintentional. But, if a motorcyclist is coming down the main road, is it inevitable that it will result in an accident (or incident by another definition)? It might well do if the rider does not alter their speed, road position, roll off the throttle, have two fingers on the brake lever etc. If however, the rider does decide to do these things, it might well not. In this case, the riders actions almost certainly will affect the outcome of another roadusers carelessness.

I would imagine it's this kind of scenario the police are referring to by saying that "most accidents are avoidable". If each accident is minutely examined for cause then I would believe it's possible to come up with a way it might have been avoided by alternative actions on someones part. However, in the real world, it's impossible to do this with all the risks we take simply because of the number of risk actions we all take during the course of a normal day.