Have you ever been in a car accident? In today’s lesson, you’re going to learn expressions for describing different types of
accidents, their causes, and results. Let’s begin with the difference between a car accident
and a car crash. Car accident is the most
general term – it can describe any type of accident, major or minor, and it can
involve only one car or two or more cars. A car crash involves a
collision – when a car hits an object with a violent impact. We can also use
“crash” as a verb – for example, the car crashed into a tree, or the car
crashed into a telephone pole.
Here are four specific types of accidents:
- When two
vehicles crash into each other while traveling in opposite directions, we call
this a head-on collision. This is one of the deadliest types of accidents.
- On the other end of the spectrum is a fender-bender. This describes a
small accident with very minor damage to the cars involved.
- When multiple cars hit each other, this is called a pile-up. Pile-ups often
occur when the weather and road conditions are bad.
- Sometimes a car hits a person, but instead of
stopping, the driver of the car drives away. This type of accident is called a hit and run.
Now we’ll look at four descriptions of accidents, and
learn the verbs used for talking about them.
#1 – I slammed on the
brakes to avoid running over a dog.
To slam on the brakes means to try to
stop the car very suddenly, often in an emergency. In this case, the driver
wanted to avoid running over a dog – the
phrasal verb run over is used when a
car passes over an object, animal, or person.
#2 – The taxi sideswiped a parked car and
then rear-ended a van.
Sideswiped means the taxi
hit the side of the parked car while passing it. Rear-ended means the taxi
hit the back of the van.
#3 – The driver lost control of the car and plowed into the guardrail.
Inexperienced drivers can lose control of the car,
especially when driving at high speeds, at night, or in bad weather. The
phrasal verb plowed into is an
alternative way to say crashed into.
This is a guardrail
#4 – Lots of cars
were skidding on the icy road,
and I saw one that had rolled over.
The verb skid means to slide
without control on a slippery surface like ice. If a car rolls over, that means it
turns upside down.
Factors causing car accidents
Car accidents can be caused by a number of factors.
Here are some of the most common.
speeding – driving faster
than the speed limit
tailgating – this is when
one car drives extremely close behind another car. It’s dangerous because if
the first car stops suddenly, the second car will not have time to stop.
drunk driving – driving under
the influence of alcohol. To test for the level of alcohol in a driver’s blood,
police use a breathalyzer test.
weather conditions – rain, snow,
and ice can make the road slick or slippery. There can also be poor visibility (difficulty to
see) due to fog or darkness
reckless driving – the word
reckless means “not careful” – so “reckless driving” means driving dangerously,
not carefully – for example, people who change lanes without using the turn
signal, or who drive impatiently and without careful observation or
consideration
road rage – when a driver
gets angry at another driver, and begins driving aggressively
distractions – when the
driver is paying attention to other things – for example, their cell phone –
and not watching the road.
Results of car accidents
Finally, let’s look at the results of an accident.
We can say the car is damaged and the people
in the cars are injured or killed. A more formal
word for someone killed in an accident is a fatality – for example,
“there were three fatalities” or “luckily, there were no fatalities.”
One common injury in car accidents is whiplash – an injury to
the neck due to the sudden impact; when your head goes forward or backwards
very suddenly. If someone in the car wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, they could be thrown from the
vehicle – this means they flew out of the vehicle and landed
some distance away.
When a car is badly damaged so that it can’t be
driven, then it needs to be towed – transported by
another vehicle, which is called a tow truck. (Your car can
also be towed if you park in a
prohibited area).
A car being towed by a tow truck
There’s a special word for when the car is damaged so
badly it can’t be repaired – we say the car is totaled.
Finally, if the occupants of the car were shaken but
unhurt, it means that they were emotionally agitated (shaken),
but they had no injuries (unhurt).