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The big scandal was that Ford did the math on the cost of settlements vs recalls and found settlements would be cheaper, so they didn't fix the issue.

I support having the death penalty but only for use against people with power that do shit like this.

this used to be a country about engineering catastrophe on purpose to save a buck

the result of this is that now this is a country that engineers catastrophes out of complete and utter incompetence.

it takes first responders a long time to smash through the windows to rescue you before you're barbecued.

Panicked tweet: "Help us, Daddy Elon! We're stuck in our Cybertruck and there's a fire! Something's burning and it smells like bacon. W" and it ends there.

IIRC, there were a couple additional issues with the Pinto. There was a problem with the filler tube that connected to the fuel tank (I think it was welded to the body or something), and this could cause a rupture and subsequent conflagration. The fuel tank was much too close to the bumper, and there wasn't enough of a buffer zone around it; there were lots of structural items nearby that could cause punctures. Ford actually had the option to license a self-sealing "fuel bladder", a design that came from the aviation industry, but the bean counters nixed that. The doors tended to bind and jam in a collision, trapping occupants in a burning vehicle. And finally, '70s-era Ford was really making some lousy cars, especially small ones. The Pinto is yet another case of "the hard way is the easiest to learn". (I think there was an episode of Engineering Disasters that covered the Pinto fiasco in great detail).

The diagram you posted below shows what a defective design it really was. It's almost as if they shoehorned in the fuel tank wherever they could, like it was an afterthought.

Measuring the data in this way actually skews it in favor of the cybertruck, because the ford Pintos have each had a lot more road-time and thus more fire likelihood. So likely more than 17x worse

gas tank behind the rear bumper, so getting rear-ended badly enough could cause a fireball

The 1993-2004 Jeep Grand Cherokee had the same issue, with higher fatality rate per fire crash

On October 2, 2009, the Center for Auto Safety filed a safety defect petition for the recall of all 1993–04 Jeep Grand Cherokees with the fuel tank located behind the rear axle. At the time of the petition, CAS had identified 172 fatal fire crashes with 254 fatalities in the FARS file from calendar year 1992 through 2008. CAS identified 44 fire crashes with 64 deaths where fire was the most harmful event. In comparison, NHTSA reported a total of 38 fire crashes with 26 fatalities when it recalled the Ford Pinto.

I believe the recall fix was to install a trailer hitch that would deform the tank in such a way that it was less likely to cause a fire.

I think you meant the gas tank was behind the rear axle, it was definitely ahead of the bumper. Subsequent studies had shown that the pinto wasn’t uniquely unsafe compared to other subcompacts from the era.