The invention discloses an accident detection method for recognizing a vehicle collision through a traffic monitoring video. The method includes the steps that 1, a stop behavior in an area target is determined; 2, the direction and amplitude of a surrounding historical light stream of the stop behavior are calculated according to an inter-frame space, and whether a light stream collision point exists around the stop behavior is judged; if yes, it is determined that the collision accident happens, the accident is reported, and judgment is finished; otherwise, the step 3 is executed; 3, the inter-frame space is changed, the direction and amplitude of the surrounding historical light stream of the stop behavior are recalculated, and whether a light stream collision point exists around the stop behavior is judged; if yes, it is determined that the collision accident happens, the accident is reported, and judgment is finished; otherwise, the step 3 is repeatedly executed till the inter-frame space exceeds 5, and it is determined that no collision accident happens currently if no light stream collision point is found around the stop behavior. The method is simple in principle and convenient to implement and has great practical value.