> And is there really a difference between an incident and an incidence? If not, can't we please just use "incidents" instead of "incidences?" These are used by people who are supposed to have some command of the language in order to do their jobs (newscasters).

When I first read this post, I didn't really think about it much. Then it popped back into my head on the way to work this morning, and I became curious about the difference, too. I'm glad you brought it up, because the two words don't mean the same thing at all, and now I'll be conscientious of how I use them myself.

"incident" is an event or occurrence. "incidence" is the frequency that something occurs. So the incidence of drunk driving incidents can be said to be too high.