Podcast 100 B2 - Accidents and injuries

Hello, and today I'm particularly happy! This is podcast number one hundred! So that's one hundred free listening podcasts I've published at Practising English since July last year. Not only that, B1 and B2 learners of English have downloaded nearly thirty thousand podcasts from Practising English in just nine months! So today I'm celebrating and I would like to say thank you all for subscribing to Practising English on your favourite podcast app or listening to them here at the Practising English website.

Accidents and injury language

Chapter starts at 7:54

B2 ambulance words

Anyway, in today's podcast, I'm going to talk about the language connected with the subject of accidents and injuries. This is a B2 podcast and there will be lots of words and expressions on this subject that will be very useful for students studying for a B2 level exam. So here we go...

I suppose it makes sense, really, doesn't it? Suddenly, accident statistics are changing. New types of accidents are now being reported. A few years ago, the majority of traffic accidents in towns and cities were pedestrian injuries, where a car hits a person crossing the road and car crashes, where two or more cars hit each other. However, recently, statistics have been released by the police in the German city of Bonn, who are now reporting a rise in the number of accidents on e-vehicles such as e-scooters and pedelecs (which are bicycles driven by electricity). The problem is, say the police, the riders don't seem to realize the dangers involved and don't respect the speed limits. People still seem to think they are riding a bicycle! In fact, the dangers of riding e-scooters and pedelecs increase because the speed increases significantly.

'People who ride pedelcs should practise in a park or safe area for many hours before they take to the streets,' said a spokesman for the Bonn police department. 'They should also realize that an e-scooter is the same category as a petrol-driven scooter and that dangerous driving could mean the riders may lose points on their driving-licence.'

Interestingly, statistics have always shown that the vast majority of accidents, even fatal ones, occur in the home. According to the Spanish organization Programme of Domestic Accident Detection, there were nearly two million accidents that happened in the home last year in Spain which required medical attention in hospital. These included falling downstairs and twisting your ankle, slipping on the soap in the shower and bumping your head, and even tripping over the cat and cutting your arm on something sharp like the edge of a glass-top table.

Children, especially are very likely to suffer from accidents in the home. One frequent risk is being poisoned. Children are naturally curious and love to open cupboards and drawers and open bottles to see what's inside. Unfortunately, if medicines, cleaning fluids, cosmetics and pesticides are not kept out of reach of children, more often than not, they may think the bottle contents is good to drink - so they'll swallow it. Ninety percent of poisonings takes place in the home and mostly it is children who are the victims of parental carelessness.

In summer, there are other types of accidents that happen to families just going about their day-to-day routine. These are caused by the increase in the number of insects around us. Notice that in English we have two verbs to talk about coming into close contact with insects. When we are talking about mosquitos, ants or other insects that use their mouth parts to cause us pain, we say we have been bitten (verb to bite) by an mosquito, ant or spider. When we talk about wasps, bees or perhaps even scorpions (actually a type of arachnid and not an insect) in Spain and other hot countries, then we use the verb to sting. That's because these creatures inject venom or poison through a sting in their abdomen. Every year, in Mexico, there are up to 1400 deaths caused by scorpion stings - usually in children. However, fortunately, most people don't die from scorpion stings, but the venom can lead to vomiting or the child may pass out and collapse on the ground and they will need to be rushed to hospital in an emergency.

The story of Peter and the pencil

Now I'm going to tell you a short story. This is a funny story. Well, I hope you find it funny. Accidents aren't a funny subject, but this story is just a silly story - so I hope you'll forgive me! As you listen, try to identify the accident and injury language I mention. You could write the words down and then check at podcast one hundred on Practising English, where you can find the audioscript.

B2 language pencils for school

Mrs Jones lived with her ten-year-old son, Peter. Peter was not a particularly lucky child. He was always having accidents. Last summer, he fell off a swing in the park and bumped his head so hard on a rock that he had to be rushed to hospital for medical treatment. He fell down the stairs about once a week and had twisted his ankle more times than his mother could remember.

He had a bad habit of going through cupboards and drawers and picking up bottles and drinking the contents. This meant he often got poisoned and had to spend the night in hospital while the doctors emptied the contents of his stomach.

Peter was always tripping over things. Last week, he tripped over his pet hamster and cut his head very badly. Probably, the worst thing that had happened to Peter was when he was stung by a scorpion. Now, this was particularly unlucky because there are no scorpions living wild in Bristol in England, where Peter lived. The scorpion, Peter found under a rock, had escaped from the local zoo. While the ambulance was rushing Peter to hospital through the streets of Bristol, it crashed with an e-scooter and several pedestrians and pedelecs, so there were several victims - fortunately, none of them fatal.

Today was just another school day for Mrs Jones and her son. Mrs Jones was making the breakfast while Peter was putting his school things into his school bag. Suddenly, Mrs Jones was interrupted from frying the eggs and bacon when she heard a terrible cry from her son, Peter. She turned round quickly and saw Peter holding his throat!

'What's the matter, Peter?' shouted his mother anxiously.

'I've... I've... I've swallowed... a pencil,' said Peter with a lot of difficulty.

'Oh, my goodness!' shouted Mrs Jones and she rushed to the phone to call her local doctor.

'Doctor, doctor!' said Mrs Jones with panic in her voice. 'My son has swallowed a pencil. Please, come quickly!'

'Don't worry, Mrs Jones!' said the doctor. 'I'll be there straight away!'

'Oh, please come quickly,' she said with tears in her eyes. 'It's an emergency!'

'Of course, of course,' said the doctor. 'Oh, and Mrs Jones?'

'What?' she said.

'If you need to write something down,' said the doctor, 'use a pen!'

That's all from me for today. Until next time! Goodbye!'