if they had responded to the scandal in time, it would have died down and everyone would have realised that it was #Fakenews and the dude wasn't in fact died or in a car crash. But as time went by, it reached more and more people and they all freaked out and reacted the way they did. As a result, it went sliding down by 20%. Which in my opinion, is A LOT!
There's a second possibility that goes like this.
Fake reasons are created for eth price fall to prevent people from understanding the real reasons behind it.
A story about a car crash could have nothing to do with an eth decline.
Eth could be a bubble that was going to pop with or without a fake story.