While suicide among adolescents is a distressing problem, it is not generally the leading cause of death among adolescents. In most industrialized countries of the world, this dubious honor goes to accidents. In the United States, accidental injury accounts for 55 per 100,000 deaths of 15- to 19-year-olds compared with 11.4 per 100,000 for suicide. In 1998, for white males (15–19 years old), the statistic for which accidental injury caused death was 70.3 per 100,000; it was 122.6 per 100,000 for black males (Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 2001). In 1997 in Australia, the figure for accidental death was 40 per 100,000 for 12- to 24-year-olds, compared with 14.6 per 100,000 for suicide for 15- to 25-year-olds (Moon, Meyer, & Grau, 1999).

It is a common belief that adolescent risk-taking behavior plays a significant role in many accidents, particularly motor vehicle accidents. For instance, 55% of adolescent deaths are attributable to motor vehicle accidents and at least half of those involve a blood alcohol level in excess of .10 (Irwin & Millstein, 1992). This indicates a willingness to risk injury to self and others as well as to ignore the legal consequences of drinking and driving. Although adolescent risk-taking increases accidental injury, other forms of physical recklessness such as involvement with smoking, drug use, and delinquency have also been shown to be associated with depressive symptomatology and suicidal ideation (Clark et al., 1990).