Accident.
I agree, I believe this is now used as an excuse to avoid apportioning blame. During my driving test in Germany, it was explained to me that there is never an ‘accident’. There is always someone/something to blame. I agree.
For those in the QA world, I understand that there is always a fault. Whether it be a component failure, someone not following the work flow etc. For those who say that you cannot predict a component failure, if an item is ‘lifed’ For x hours, and fails prior to that, then that component is a failure.
Sorry about the length.