accident

Any extraordinary or unforeseen event; an event that causes damage or injury. The term has specific meanings in the contexts of legal and insurance practice.

In the English law of torts, ‘inevitable accident’ is a defence to an action for negligence. In criminal law, it is a defence to a criminal charge requiring intention, recklessness, or foresight of consequences to be proved for a conviction if the event occasioning the charge was accidental; that is, the act was involuntary or, if voluntary, there was no possibility of foresight of the consequences. In insurance practice, the word ‘accident’ includes occurrences brought about by the negligence of the insured or assured and of other or third parties. In the law of employers' liability, the word is also loosely used to include not only events accidental in a popular sense but, for the purposes of statutory compensation, others which are in no sense fortuitous.