The United States saw a substantial decrease in accident-related deaths in the twentieth century. Despite a greater number and variety of motor vehicles, firearms, poisonous products, and dangerous pastimes and leisure activities, the nation achieved a 55 percent reduction in deaths from unintentional injuries from 1912 to 2000.
The National Safety Council, a federally chartered nonprofit organization, attributes the decline in accidental deaths to a number of factors, including improvements in technology such as seat belts and air bags, which have helped curb the number of road fatalities. Evolving legislation and proactive safety education has also contributed to safer living, as have broad social changes: the shift from agriculture and manufacturing to an information-based economy has lowered the number of hazardous jobs.
Everyday Accidents
Motor vehicle accidents were by far the largest source of unintentional-injury deaths, claiming 43,501 lives in 1998—roughly 2.5 times more than falls, the second most common cause. Males were twice as likely to die in a car crash as females, but the gender gap was almost nonexistent for falling victims, with twice as many men and women over the age of 75 falling to their deaths as all other age groups combined. Men were nearly three times more likely to die of the third most common accident, poisonings, and four times more likely to drown. The fifth leading cause of accidental death, choking, was fairly evenly distributed between men and women, and, like falls, increased dramatically with age.
Road fatalities in the United States decreased by 17 percent between 1990 and 2000; however, the number of people who died of accidental death in the home rose. Deadly falls, more than half of which happened at home, were up by nearly 40 percent; and poisonings, led by pharmaceutical and narcotics overdoses, more than doubled. The most accident-prone states in 2000 were Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee; the least accident-prone, with approximately half as many unintentional-injury deaths per capita, were Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.
Other National Safety Council findings reveal an interesting snapshot of America at the end of the twentieth century. Between 1998 and 2000, light delivery vehicles for the U.S. Postal Service had the highest number of accidents per mile for all truck fleets. In 1999, basketball accounted for the greatest number of sports injuries, followed by bicycle riding and football. In 1999, more hospital emergency room visits were related to people using their beds (455,027) than handling knives (446,225).
National Tragedies and Blunders
The most notorious accidents in American history have accounted for relatively few deaths compared to the lives lost from everyday injuries.
Great Chicago Fire (8–10 October 1871). An unusual autumn drought and heat wave, combined with high winds, allowed a small barn blaze to grow into a conflagration that ravaged much of Chicago. As the inferno spread, flames leapt over rivers; firefighters dynamited entire buildings in a vain attempt to slow the fire's progress. The blaze, which only died down when rain began to fall on 10 October, killed between two and three hundred people, destroyed approximately 18,000 buildings, and caused $200 million in damages. Increased fire safety awareness and fire-fighting capabilities, along with a revolution in building materials—from wood to brick and steel—helped decrease fire-related deaths by almost two thirds between 1913 and 2000, even as the population nearly tripled.
Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire (25 March 1911). Just minutes before quitting time, employees of a Manhattan clothing manufacturer were trapped by a flash fire that began in a pile of oil-soaked rags. Due to cramped conditions and a lack of adequate exits, 146 workers, mostly young immigrant women, either died in the blaze or leapt to their deaths from windows eight to ten stories above the street. The scope of the tragedy prompted sweeping reforms in factory safety regulations, aided in part by the efforts of the National Safety Council, formed two years after the tragedy. In 2000, workplace accidents were the smallest category of unintentional-injury deaths, showing a decrease of 90 percent since 1912, despite a quadrupling of the workforce and a ninefold increase in productivity.
Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident (28 March 1979). A dangerous combination of mechanical and human failures brought a Pennsylvania nuclear power plant to the brink of catastrophic meltdown. The crisis was quickly and successfully addressed and no one was killed, but the accident sparked a major public outcry. While energy officials insisted that the surrounding area was not contaminated, scientists still disagree on whether people living near the plant suffered adverse effects from radiation vented during the crisis. According to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, no health problems or deaths have been directly related to nuclear power in the United States, but no new nuclear plants have been built in the country since the Three Mile Island event.
American Airlines Flight 191 (25 May 1979). Shortly after taking off from Chicago's O'Hare airport, a DC-10 lost its left wing engine, causing it to veer out of control and crash to the ground, killing all aboard. The deadliest commercial airliner crash in American history claimed 272 lives and prompted the grounding of all DC-10s in the United States pending investigation of, among other issues, maintenance procedures. Although airline accidents are major headline grabbers, the number of lives lost in such accidents does not equal even 1 percent of the deaths caused by passenger automobile accidents between 1997 and 1999.
Exxon Valdez Oil Spill (24 March 1988). A reportedly inebriated and fatigued crew ran an oil tanker, the Exxon Valdez aground in Alaska's Prince William Sound, dumping 11 million gallons of oil into the water and devastating local wildlife. Exxon spent $2.2 billion on the cleanup effort and twelve years later declared the environment "healthy and robust." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported that the area had made a remarkable recovery but remained an "ecosystem in transition." While the accident was the worst of its kind in American history, it has since dropped off the list of the world's 50 largest oil spills.
Bibliography
Flexner, Stuart, and Doris Flexner. The Pessimist's Guide to History: From the Big Bang to the New Millennium. Updated ed. New York, Harper Perennial, 2000.
National Safety Council. Injury Facts, 2000. Itasca, Ill.: The Council, 2000.
—Paul Bacon
