Many people have cited car accidents as a problematic use of the word ‘accidents’ but that’s not what I was attempting to do in this piece. I included the story of the girl from my town not because it involved a car, but because it was an accident (definition: an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury.)

I agree that the use of the word ‘accident’ with cars is problematic. After all we don’t call them plane accidents, we call them plane crashes. The same usage change would help here.