Ridiculous Logic?

Below is the an excerpt of the story of the girl who was run over by a truck in China. It includes the reason given by the driver who knocked her down:

China wonders if, in the rush of life, it has lost its soul | Firstpost: "After the footage was aired on Chinese and international news channels, the entire grim episode has triggered an intense outpouring of outrage and angst over what many see as the wholesale collapse of ethical and moral standards in fast-changing China.

The minivan driver who knocked Wang down, and then ran over her deliberately, has since surrendered to the police, but offered a curious explanation for his action. He said he had been talking on his mobile phone when he hit the girl, but decided to run her over because it would have cost him less to pay off a dead girl’s parents than to pay for her hospital expenses.

“If she had died, I would have been required to pay only about 20,000 yuan (about Rs 1.5 lakh) in compensation, but if she were injured, it would cost me hundreds of thousands of yuan in hospital expenses,” he said.