Accident

accident

In risk management, any unanticipated or unpredictable event that may interfere with normal functions or cause logical or physical damage to data.

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accident

1. Logic Philosophy a nonessential attribute or characteristic of something (as opposed to substance)

2. Metaphysics a property as contrasted with the substance in which it inheres

3. Geology a surface irregularity in a natural formation, esp in a rock formation or a river system

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accident [′ak·sə‚dent]

(hydrology)

An interruption in a river that interferes with, or sometimes stops, the normal development of the river system.

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accident

A sudden, unexpected event identifiable as to time and place. Also see occurrence.

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Accident 

in philosophy, a term for the incidental or immaterial as opposed to the substantial or essential.

It is first encountered in Aristotle’s Metaphysics and Physics; later Porphyry divided accidents into those which are separable—for example, a dream for a man—and those which are inseparable—for example, dark skin pigmentation for a Negro. The concept of accident was developed in scholasticism, which viewed several characteristics of things as “real accidents,” existing on their own without regard for the substances in which they are usually inherent. Descartes, Hobbes, and other 17th-century philosophers rejected the existence of “real accidents”; following this vein, Spinoza replaced the term “accident” with the term “modus,” by which he meant the isolated manifestation of substance. The concept of accident is encountered in Kant, Fichte, and other philosophers of the 18th and 19th centuries and also in formal logic—for example, in J. S. Mill and F. C. S. Schiller.

V. V. SOKOLOV

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Accident 

in civil law, a circumstance leading to the nonfulfillment or improper fulfillment of obligations by a debtor, without the debtor or the creditor subject to blame. As a general rule, an accident frees the debtor of liability involving his own assets.

In Soviet law, the responsibility for accidents is acknowledged only under circumstances specified by law. For example, enterprises especially established to store property, such as storage and cold-storage enterprises, are held liable for accidents. The same is true of organizations and citizens whose work or other activity entails risk or danger, such as transport organizations and motor vehicle owners. Air transport organizations are held liable for death, maiming, or other injury to a passenger during takeoff, landing, or flight, as well as during the boarding and deplaning of passengers. This applies not only to accidents but also to the effects of force majeure, as stipulated in Article 101 ofthe Air Code of the USSR.