Every year, there are more people in America who suffer an accidental death. AP reported recently on this troubling trend, which showed both that accident rates are higher and more people are passing away due to preventable issues.
When an accident that turns out to be fatal occurs, it is important to determine who was to blame. Virtually all accidents could be prevented if every person or company exercised reasonable care and fulfilled their duty to keep others safe.
Unfortunately, instead of things getting better and fewer people dying of accidental causes, more people are actually losing their lives in often-avoidable incidents. If you or someone you love becomes one of the victims of someone else's negligence or wrongdoing, a New Jersey personal injury attorney can help you.
More Americans are Losing Their Lives Annually Due to Accidental Causes
AP reports that there were 136,000 Americans who died in 2014 by accident. This is a 4.2 percent higher number of fatalities as compared with just one year prior. This also represents a 15.5 percent rise in the number of accidental deaths during the past decade.
Motor vehicle accidents sill remain a top cause of accidental deaths, accounting for over 35,000 fatalities yearly. While this is a substantial number of deaths, the number of people killed in auto accidents has actually declined 22 percent since 2005.
As car accident deaths have declined, fatalities from other accidental causes have risen dramatically, which helps to explain why the death toll is so much higher than it was a decade ago. For example, there was a 63 percent increase in the number of deaths due to falls between 2005 and 2014.
There are now 31,959 people who die because of falls in the United States. Falls are the third leading cause of accidental deaths, after poisoning and motor vehicle accidents. The big jump in fall-related injuries is driven, in large part, by the aging of society. Seniors are both more likely to suffer a fall and are more likely to suffer fatal injuries in a fall.
While an aging population is more vulnerable, this does not mean that these accidental deaths are just something that have to be accepted. The statistician manager for the National Safety Council stated that: “It's all preventable. Every accident is preventable.” He cautioned that the statistics on rising deaths due to accidents should not be misconstrued as seeing more people as accident prone. Instead, the point of the statistics is to show society is not doing enough to prevent accidental deaths.
Every person and company, including drivers and property owners, has a duty to try to ensure that they do not take actions or create conditions that present an unreasonable risk to others. If someone fails to live up to his or her duty and injuries or death occur, a personal injury lawyer with Helmer, Conley, and Kasselman, P.A. can help victims or their families pursue a personal injury or wrongful death claim to obtain monetary damages for their losses.
