Your statement is only partly true. The article just says "I found out that I broke the other driver’s spine, and she’ll never walk again" - so you're reading into it that he read it in a newspaper, but maybe it was just hearsay from someone who talked to someone who worked at the hospital who had talked to the doctor who may have treated her (or maybe someone else who also had a car accident that day)? I think the vague formulation is intentional to make it apply more widely.

But I agree with the point that it's not "the past" that's at fault here, it's unreliable sources of information.