I agree that we should pay the attention to traffic deaths that the death toll warrants.
But don't call accidental deaths murder. That's the "overheated" part. Murder has a definition, and traffic deaths aren't it.
Even if you are a fervent advocate of traffic safety, this kind of manipulative rhetoric does you no favors. It makes people tune you out as a demagogue.
(Why do I call this "manipulative"? Because it tries to play on peoples' view of the horror of murder to make people realize the horror of traffic deaths. Traffic deaths are horrible, but the technique is still manipulative.)
Of course it's not technically murder. I interpreted the headline as pointing to the fact that, like murder, traffic deaths are "premeditated" in the sense that we know full well that they will occur but do little to prevent them.
Is it not? There are certainly some outliers (e.g. terrorism), but overall, traffic deaths seem to get more attention given its death rate than other causes of death.
For example, annual traffic deaths in the US are about the same as annual deaths from chronic liver disease or suicide. Suicide gets some attention, liver disease very little, while traffic deaths get all sorts of attention, from massive R&D efforts by car makers to seat belt campaigns to heavy police enforcement of safety-related traffic laws.
As another example, heart disease and stroke kill about 20 times as many Americans as traffic accidents, but it's legal for me to eat 6,000 calories of bacon a day while it's illegal for me not to wear my seat belt. (This is not a complaint against seat belt laws. I think they're a fine idea. I'm just pointing out a disparity in legal attention.)
But don't call accidental deaths murder. That's the "overheated" part. Murder has a definition, and traffic deaths aren't it.
Even if you are a fervent advocate of traffic safety, this kind of manipulative rhetoric does you no favors. It makes people tune you out as a demagogue.
(Why do I call this "manipulative"? Because it tries to play on peoples' view of the horror of murder to make people realize the horror of traffic deaths. Traffic deaths are horrible, but the technique is still manipulative.)