When I listen to and watch the news coverage of the crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214 I remember a lesson I learned years ago about reporting deaths: you never say something like "fortunately only two died."

It is never "fortunate" or "lucky" or "miraculous" that any died in an accident.

It doesn't matter if there were 307 on board Asiana Airlines Flight 214 or if there might be 3,000 on a ship -- if one person died it's not fortunate, or lucky, or miraculous -- it's tragic.

One death creates a tragedy. And one death should never be reported as "only one died" because one death is always too much. You cannot minimize one death or two deaths even when 305 other passengers and crew survived.