Skip to main content

Roads: Accidents

Question for Department for Transport

UIN 902327, tabled on 26 March 2024

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, If he will make an assessment of the potential merits of changing the terminology of road traffic accidents to crashes or collisions.

Answered on

15 April 2024

Where possible, the Department no longer uses the word ‘accidents’. The appropriate terms to use are ‘crashes’, ‘collisions’ and ‘incidents’. We encourage others to do so, too.

However, the word ‘accident’ continues to be used in certain circumstances, for example where that is the term previously used in legislation.

Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.