Car Accidents vs. My Non-Lost Hiker Friend

I'm always amazed that local news makes such little fuss about deadly car accidents--treating them mostly as traffic problems. Yes, they cover them all. Every single one. Every day. And especially if there was a fire involved.

Compare that with their investigative reports or other human drama stories, where they spare no effort to make sure you know just how dramatic it was. My friend made the news last week as a lost hiker stuck on a dangerous mountain in near white out conditions. They made it sound like he was in imminent danger. But, as he explained it to me, he was just a little late getting done with a technical climb and was quite surprised to meet the rescue crew on his way down.

The local news had him suffering imminent death from dehydration. They don't mention that my friend offered to give his "rescuers" some of the water out his still-full cannister. The news channel spent 10 minutes interviewing, 9.9 of which he told them it was no big deal. Which clip do you think they showed?

I would imagine that putting drama back into the car crashes would have a little better public safety value for us than focusing on non-stories such as my friend's. But it's always a pretty sober description: "the car crossed the median and hit another car." Could that have anything to do with half the ads on the local news being for cars?