The Michigan Department of Transportation is changing the way they describing traffic crashes. The keyword there being “crash” and not “accident”. The department released a video to clarify the change explaining that it’s happening because most incidents are actually at fault crashes which are caused by things like distracted driving, drunkenness, reckless driving, and more.

The term “accident” made its first appearance in the 1920’s as automakers and insurers tried to shift blame when crashes happened. According to MDOT statistics, there were almost 313-thousand crashes in 2018 and most were due to some sort of negligent behavior.

The following is the video from MDOT: