There Are No Accidents

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

By: Jessie Singer

Narrated by: Gabra Zackman

A journalist recounts the surprising history of accidents and reveals how they’ve come to define all that’s wrong with America.

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 of the sort of tragedies that are all too common, and all too commonly ignored.

In this revelatory book, Singer tracks accidental death in America from turn of the century factories and coal mines to today’s urban highways, rural hospitals, and Superfund sites. Drawing connections between traffic accidents, accidental opioid overdoses, and accidental oil spills, Singer proves that what we call accidents are hardly random. Rather, who lives and dies by an accident in America is defined by money and power. She also presents a variety of actions we can take as individuals and as a society to stem the tide of “accidents”—saving lives and holding the guilty to account.

Solid and impactful book

You should walk away second guessing the word accident. When we consider large-scale systems we must reflect on how changing that system will affect individual lives. The author gives countless examples of how those systems cause avoidable suffering and how that can change. Well worth a read.

Deaths that could be prevented

The amount of pure fatcs and statistics on "accidents" and how most deaths could have been prevented.

Great Book

Great book and a lot of good ideas presented.

Only downside was there was a lot of political talk at the end that could distract people. But I still would recommend this book to anyone.

You will never hear the word "accident" the same

In this eye-opening book, Jessie Singer makes a thoroughly researched and compellingly argued case for looking beyond the inevitable human errors on the surface of every accident. The phrase "it was an accident" is revealed to be a code for "let's not look at the conditions that helped cause this." Singer's analysis is surprisingly intersectional, showing how risks of accidental death and injury fall shockingly unevenly on groups marginalized by racism, sexism, and stigma, and she convincingly demonstrates how those in power benefit from---and willfully perpetuate---unsafe conditions.

This is a fantastic book for learning how to think in systems, and unlike many political books it is refreshingly solutions-oriented. I can't recommend it enough.

Thought provoking and well researched

This book really made me think. Every chapter was interesting and well supported by data. I have already sent copies to friends.