Accidental Deaths Reached A Record High In The US

Many American are reportedly dying by accident and drug overdoses and falls are the leading causes of it.

The National Safety Council (NSC) has discovered that the accidental deaths in America have increased in recent years. There were 136,000 Americans died from accidental causes, which include unintentional overdoses. This has increased by about 4.2 percent over the past year and 15.5 percent within a decade. It averages to one accidental death for each four minutes across the nation.

Accidental deaths are currently the fourth-highest cause of death. It falls behind heart disease, which takes about 614,000 lives annually. This is followed by cancer and chronic respiratory disease. Ken Kolosh, the NSC statistics manager stated that the accident is preventable. On the other hand, it's not necessarily the (fault) of the victim. He further said that each individual has the opportunity to yield choices to keep themselves safe, according to Newsy.

The fatal falls are partly to be blamed for the high accidental rates in the U.S. In 2014, there are about 32,000 people died of fatal falls, compared with fewer than 10,000 in 1992. The researchers said that cause of increased deaths from falling is the aging American population. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) stated that in 2013, involuntary injuries were the eight leading cause of death among U.S. adults aged 65 and above. This resulted in almost 46,000 deaths, according to Tech Times.

CDC stated that the deaths from opioid and heroin have increased by 14 percent from 2013 to 2014. It almost tripled since 2010. Other types of accidental deaths such as traffic crashes have lower rates.

The NSC stated that the main cause of accidental death differs by age group. Suffocation is the leading cause of infants younger than 1-year-old. For children aged 1 to 4 years old, the cause of the accidents is drowning. For ages 5 to 24, the vehicles crashes are the leading category and for those in their mid-20s tomid-60s, poisonings and drug overdoses are the highest category. For the elders with aged 65 and above, falls are the top cause of accidental death.