It's a crash. Not an "accident".

I notice especially in American English there's a tendency to call any incident with a vehicle "an accident". And that's just really inappropriate, because it's an attempt to excuse the driver from the consequences of his prior decisions.

In aviation, when root cause analysis is performed, it's extremely rare when a crash happens due to structural or manufacturing mistake (with a glaring exception of the new 737MAX). Mostly it's because either pilots were fatigued, did not follow procedures properly, or exhibited one or more of the [Five Hazardous Attitudes](https://commons.erau.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1677&context=ijaaa). Oftentimes it's a spicy combination of these circumstances.

It's no different on the road - for 99.99%, it will be a fatigued driver, a distracted driver, a driver with a hazardous attitude, a driver that didn't upkeep his car (complacency). In very rare cases would it be "a circumstance entirely outside of driver's immediate control, for which the driver did everything possible to mitigate and it wasn't enough".

So I will say this as simple as that: **if your vehicle caused damage or injuries to anything and anyone, it's a crash**. Fender bender is a crash, too. You fucked up, either by causing it directly or failing to avoid it. Just because "you didn't mean it" doesn't mean it was out of your control. You are the one responsible for keeping space, looking out, planning ahead, and taking actions that account for your and other drivers' mistakes. So drive with that responsibility in mind.