I would say if a professional road driver (EG Trucker, bus driver etc) ploughed into other people and killed them (if it was no fault of their own) it is equal to the scandal of railway professionals not doing their job and killing people.
Obviously, as it's been pointed out, train crashes and relatively rare, but there is no doubt there is disproportionate reporting of rail accidents. Certainly in the case for looking for scapegoats, someone to blame. The railway tends to get looked at as 'a whole system', where the roads (although there is overall standards) tend to focus on drivers if there is an accident. Compare this hysteria of significant railway accidents and the calls for sacking and people to resign compared to motorway pile ups. There tends to be very few, if any, calls for officials from councils, the Highways agency, car manufactures heads to be put on the line, even if there might be significant underlying design issues.
I also disagree you can control the railway and do everything to reduce the chances of an accident any more than a road. Indeed, 80% of incidents on the railways are down to communication failures, IE one party not fully understanding the other because messages have been confused or misunderstood. There's always the hazard of vandalism, level crossings, trees blowing down across the line and so on. The reason there are so few railway accidents is built in safety systems, standards and staff training/professionalism, rather than the erroneous belief (by many members of the public) it's all very straightforward.
In other words, we seem to accept lower standards for the roads and are much more willing to chance things. If you or your friends/family ever have the misfortune to get caught up in a road accident, you will be relatively forgotten compared to victims of a plane or train crash.
