I am one.
"When their rental car left the road" is actually the correct way to write it. It would also be correct to say, "when their rental car hit a tree." I suppose you would have preferred the author to have written, "when the driver crashed his car into a tree." That would not be a correct way to report it. What if he had been pushed off the road by another car? What if the car malfunctioned and hit the tree through no fault of the driver? I think we can all infer what caused this accident, but until that has been finally determined it is not appropriate to report that the driver crashed the car.
That said, it is silly to think that a suit could be brought against a newspaper reporter for tainting a jury pool by reporting that a driver crashed his car, though it would certainly be poor journalism in most cases.
Its the very same reason they put “alleged” in front of killers for which there is irrefutable evidence they did the murder or crime.
She allegedly murdered her boyfriend as the videotape clearly shows her driving over him several times. That is ridiculous reporting yet thats how they do it, to cover their asses.
Same stupid thing here.. if thy did real reporting if it was some mechanical malfunction they could si,ply report the mechanical malfunction. But no one does research and newpapers take ads from car companies and dealers too. Guess who would not have reporters blaming car crashes on auto malfunctions and defects?