> One was an attempt to shape news coverage of car accidents. The National Automobile Chamber of Commerce, an industry group, established a free wire service for newspapers: reporters could send in the basic details of a traffic accident, and would get in return a complete article to print the next day. These articles, printed widely, shifted the blame for accidents to pedestrians — signaling that following these new laws was important.
The Freakonomics guys did a podcast on the perfect murder, and it turns out it was "kill someone with your car" because only a tiny percentage of people that kill pedestrians are prosecuted for manslaughter. Tiny.
This is also evil, though I'm not sure who is to blame for it.
I think it is a form of judicial corruption where the justice system does what is popular rather than what is right. Pretty much everyone drives and anyone can make a mistake while driving. The needs of the majority outweigh the needs of the few.
The Canadian Supreme Court actually stated this principle in a decision where they weighed the "social value" of driving against the responsibility of the driver. If we were to make drivers strictly responsible for their actions we would make the value of the automobile less.
You have to admit, that it pretty terrible.