-Me reading clockwise from the top- “Haha lmao people and their overuse of the amnesia, drunken party, the jealous LI…” -sees the “parents died in a car accident,” which I’ve used- “Oi, wait a minute!”
I’m mostly kidding though. Absentee parents are a staple of any story where the MC is anywhere between 10 and like 25. The reason why is pretty obvious, the characters need to be free to make stupid decisions without a responsible adult to say ‘Honey, that’s a HORRIBLE idea and here’s why…’ I, for one, am trying to shake it up and not just lean on car crash each time, it gets to be cheap and lazy eventually, and presumably pretty fucking annoying for someone who’s genuinely lost someone that way irl. Not that there’s any great way to cast absentee parents, but again, shake it up.
Some morbid death statistics if you need other ways for a character not to be in the picture
Based on data from the US, separated into age groups.
Overall causes of death in parent-ish age groups
Injury deaths with unintentional ones highlighted
Unintended poisoning is often overdose, either mistake with prescriptions or illegal/recreational. Carbon monoxide or chemicals like pesticides would also be included.