Safety

Every year accidents kill thousands of people, injure millions more, and destroy buildings, land, and valuables. Many of these accidents are caused by personal carelessness or by defects in buildings or machines. If a man runs out into a busy street and is hit by a car, his carelessness has caused the accident and he has no one but himself to blame. But if a ceiling falls on him when he is in a building, it is a different matter. The ceiling may have been poorly constructed, or the landlord may have allowed it to decay. Then the builder or the landlord is to blame. A few accidents are so strange and unusual that little can be done to guard against them, and they are nobody's fault. They are usually caused by freaks of nature and so are called freak accidents. Many accidents, however, could easily be prevented by following simple rules of safety in homes, schools, offices, cars and public places.

See also : Accidents statistics