Of course, in principle, lying to the public is still morally wrong; however, there is a fundamental difference between lying to protect the interests of your company in a manner that allows your company to continue putting the public at risk and lying to protect the interests of your company in a manner that merely minimizes the potential future harm to your company arising from past mistakes, provided appropriate steps are implemented to correct the situation in the future.
The best possible solution to the ethical dilemma presented would comprise the following components:
commitment from the company president to thoroughly investigate the allegations of the state public safety director.
A commitment from the company president to implement all the steps necessary to resolve the problems identified by the state public safety director.
A public statement that acknowledges the importance of working with the state public safety director's office to ensure the safety of all vehicles operated by your company.
A commitment from the company president to settle any civil suits arising from liability in connection with previous failures to ensure the safety of company vehicles if those failures resulted in financial and other types of harm to individuals involved in accidents with company vehicles.
The intent of these components is simply to rectify the situation to prevent any future harm caused by previous failures on the part of the company to maintain the safety of its vehicles and to compensate innocent victims of such company failures without causing unnecessary financial harm to the company. Misrepresenting the truth and taking no action to solve the problem would result in continued risk of harm to the public safety, health, and welfare.
On the other hand, it is not absolutely necessary to admit the truth of the problem to the extent the purpose of that non-admission is limited to minimizing damaging the reputation and future viability...
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