As long as the author isn't trusting the action alone to hook a reader, it can work. A book still usually needs to start with character, setting, and problem, and if the problem is the car crash, fine, as long as a character is established for whom the car crash is a problem readers then care about. A random car crash void of any emotional connection to one of the victims remains just noise.
I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.