There was an accident

in the next street  yesterday....except that it wasn't an accident at all.
It's a long street on a bit of a slope. I know about the slope as I have had to pedal up it more than once. At weekends in particular there are liable to be cars parked on either side.  It doesn't leave a lot of room. There are also cross streets where drivers need to be aware of other vehicles crossing or entering.
People need to travel along it with caution.
And some people like to travel along it at well over the speed limit. They particularly like to do it at night. We can hear them increasing speed at the top of the little hill and - sometimes - the squeal of brakes. We hear laughter and loud music emanating from the cars of these drivers too.
Yesterday, just after the Senior Cat had been picked up by a friend, I heard a car coming down the street at great speed. I heard a horn blare - and then a bang.
I didn't go to investigate. The speeding car had gone on without stopping. If anything it had gone on at increased speed. 
This morning, as I was picking up the paper from the front lawn, someone I know slightly was walking his dog past. He stopped and said, "Time you wrote another letter to the paper."
   "What about?" I asked.
He told me he'd had an accident.
   "Except it wasn't an accident at all. It could have been avoided.  It could have been much worse but I hit the neighbour's car because I had to swerve suddenly to avoid a head on collision with an idiot coming down the hill at somewhere near twice the speed limit."
Fortunately for him the neighbour saw the incident and was more concerned for him than either of the cars. Neither of them managed to get the number of the speeding car. The perpetrator won't be held to account at all.
Two men now have to get their cars repaired. It's going to be costly. It's going to be time consuming and an all round nuisance. It could have been avoided.
There is a piece in this morning's paper asking what can be done with people who drive in ways which cause others to have "accidents". There was an horrific accident in another state recently. Three members of the same family died and another has had her life support turned off but still clings to life. The driver of the other car also died. He had such a lengthy list of driving offences against his name he should have been banned for life - and measures should have been taken to ensure he couldn't access a vehicle illegally. 
Recently I said somewhere else that a licence to drive a car is a privilege, not a right. I said it comes with responsibilities. There were people present who didn't like that at all. They see driving as a right. "If I pay my taxes I have the right to drive."
Really? No. It's a privilege.
And yesterday I was very aware that, a minute or two earlier, the Senior Cat's friend was driving along that street to come and get him. If his friend had been involved in the "accident" the Senior Cat would have felt dreadful that someone doing something for him had been involved in such an event. 
Perhaps we need a new word to describe the "accidents" which are not accidents at all but the result of a deliberate, illegal act on the part of someone lacking any sense of responsibility.