The world's most expensive auto accident - NOT!

thanks for reinforcing my views on most journalists out there today. You guys can teach them real informative and accurate journalism. Thank you

What do FACTS have to do with this? Mass media is in the ENTERTAINMENT business -- not the NEWS business.

Gizmag, i now come here first for tech news, and have abandoned several flashy tech websites, including FastCompany and Gizmodo, for the very reason mentioned. I value Gizmag's more in-depth, intelligent reporting, and especially the confidence i feel that what i read here is true. The other sites can keep their sassy wisecracks and 100 word articles. Most days, Gizmag is all i read re: new tech and light science. Which i read a lot. I'm here almost every day. Yay, you!

There are other news sources then gizmag? ^^

Its rare to see common sense on the internet these days. Well done Mike !!

Mark,

News media, in addition to entertainment, are also very involved in driving their political agenda (typically a very liberal one).

ok. Lets rephrase this. Worlds most expensive 14 car accident. Worlds costliest auto accident with the biggest number of super-expensive cars involved.

thats more correct

Is not the Journalists' motto: "Ne Bona Fabula Obstruatur Veritate"

can we still call it the "most expensive accident" in a way that PER CAR involved, excluding injuries and deaths and insurance costs more than a usual 4 car pile-up. so most expensive pile-up per capita or something like that. thanks for throwing some water on the flames though, stuff can get out of hand to the point where a nothing event becomes news.

It's ironic that you reprimand the lemming-like "journalists", but then go on to quote Wikipedia, which is often criticized by academia as being unreliable. Don't get me wrong, many of the hacks writing news today simply spew the dribble du jour, and, in fact, I personally rely on Wikipedia for what I would consider to be facts, but if we're talking about irrefutable data, Wikipedia is not necessarily your most reliable resource. I'm just sayin'...

@johnweythek, nope, not even close. For example http://www.wreckedexotics.com/articles/040.shtml

http://www.wreckedexotics.com/newphotos/exotics2011sep19/2003-ferrari-enzo-edo-xx-2496.shtml

I'm sure there are plenty of worse examples too.

Do I tire of terrible 'reporting'. Thanks for showing what the merest hint (you obviously went further) of research can turn up to contradict all the claims out there about this luxury car pile up.

I have stuck to Gizmag since early days and latched onto BBC/Al-Jazeera in equal measure; that of a survivor clinging to his life raft.

Cheers to rational, researched journalism.

Perhaps the most expensive automobile accident actually involved a ship.

A Ferry load of BMW s which sank in the English channel. Add the cost of the ship and it would be hard to beat.

probably all too late, yes

The original headline for the story was Japan's most expensive car crash. The real question is what is the cost of a crash in insurance files payout minus recovered vehicle cost. Expensive cars going into salt water- most of the value will be kept as they have very good corrosion protection, sure the engine et al will need a lot of work to get back of the condition.

I am sorry to find out again, for the umpteenth time, than news are not meant to inform but to sell trash paper to innocent, gullible, adrenalin-starved populaces all over the world... It is not our sacred right to be informed, but our indulgence in mild titillation that is addressed!

It probably is the most expensive in terms of cost per car involved. You can't really price a life, though insurance does, so the story is just about the price of the cars involved. Stop nit picking.

The most expensive car accident allegedly ever happened in Germany involved a BMW 3 series, a fuel truck and a bridge. The BMW cut lane of the truck, the truck crashed against the border of the bridge, almost fell off the bridge and exploded. This explosion was so harmful to the inner structure of the bridge, that it became necessary to completely knock down and reconstruct the bridge. Total cost: approx. 24 million euros.

Headlines such as "[superlative] thing ever has happened here, click for heaven's sake!" will continue to appear in modern online media. The reason is clear: As long as internet media are paid by advertisement and their success is measured by clicks, the writers are bound to make headlines as dramatic as possible. They have to think in a way junkmail spammers do: "Lady Gaga gives a BJ" works better clickwise than "EU Commission President Barroso demands firm rules for Euro Bonds", even if the latter may be of far more importance for our standard of living in the future...

I think it's a mistake to say that the phenomenon of titles that intentionally mislead in order to get attention is something that comes from the internet. Yellow Journalism is nothing new, and not exclusive to any political party, be they Torries or Loyalists. Also, speaking of fact checking, I doubt that a worldwide look at journalistic bias would reveal a liberal bent, but I would love to see a well documented article to this effect. The internet probably has a slight liberal bias because age tends to co-correlate with internet use and political viewpoint, but I doubt China is publishing much with a liberal agenda and with Rupert Murdock and Clear Chanel controlling an overwhelming amount of the US media, it's hard to believe that US media is very liberal either. Still, I could be wrong.

Whatever the state of other media, I honestly appreciate the Gizmag's usual commitment to good fact checking and even first hand reporting.