Part of it is that more concentrated events are easier to do something about. By some way of contrast, fixing the diffuse deaths from car accidents requires re

Part of it is that more concentrated events are easier to do something about. By some way of contrast, fixing the diffuse deaths from car accidents requires re-licensing the entire population with stricter training, a metric f*$#-ton of road re-design, etc. Even if you could muster the political will to make it happen it'd be a colossally expensive endeavor. Plus, the fact that people are willing to to voluntarily engage with the roads as-is on a daily basis suggests that people are comfortable with that level of risk. I personally think it's worth making our roads safer, but my opinions don't keep that from being a hard problem, and most of that hardness comes from its diffuse nature. Contrast that with plane accidents. In some sense, we're lucky this was a cargo plane. This could have just as easily been 3 days worth of car accident deaths, and the only reason air travel is anywhere near as safe as the status quo is because of intense scrutiny of events like this, making the entire system safer over time.