With cars, the way we avoid crashes is by "not driving." Which we're not going to do - and besides, when we're driving, we're in charge. We can out-drive any crash! So in the end, reporting on car crashes isn't going to have that necessary "the world will kill you in unpredictable, random ways" that drives our irrational fear.
We just got a baby crib that is a few years old. It's a nice sturdy crib. However, what we choose to ignore, is that since the side can go down, we will be napping our baby in a DEATH TRAP. http://thechart.blogs.cnn.com/2011/06/28/dangerous-drop-side... I'm sure that in a couple of years we will find that current cribs are actually infant execution devices. Cribs are pretty mundane, but we can be taught to fear them.
And have. http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/12/toyota-autos-hoax-media-opi... http://jalopnik.com/5493693/america-you-brought-the-toyota-h...