to be fair, they didnt claim it is likely, just that it could kill.
You could make the same point about going 5mph under the speed limit.
It is somewhat interesting to think about the factors that go into setting a punishment. It is rarely the magnitude of potential damage (worst case), and often not even the damage adjusted by the probability of occurrence.
Most often, it has more to do with subjective custom and norms. Some dangerous things are OK, some are harshly punished.
Certain companies dumping massive amounts of certain chemicals into water supply for many years are not even found guilty.
5mph over in a city or intentional plane crash in the wilderness and misleading investigators are small enough to be bad things, but do bad things at sufficient scale and those things are no longer bad.
Level of risk has something to do with it too. Also the benefit.
There’s small risk and tremendous benefit to letting everyone go 5 mph faster (time is money) but no benefit and relatively high risk to letting them turn Cessnas into missiles. The calculus on this one is easy
You could make the same point about going 5mph under the speed limit.
It is somewhat interesting to think about the factors that go into setting a punishment. It is rarely the magnitude of potential damage (worst case), and often not even the damage adjusted by the probability of occurrence.
Most often, it has more to do with subjective custom and norms. Some dangerous things are OK, some are harshly punished.