Accident gawkers

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maddash
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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by maddash »

lukethedrifter wrote:You'd be surprised how often there is a secondary accident involving gawkers.
Yeah, I was just going to say the same thing.

Anytime you see police/ambulance lights, you should get out of the lane closest to them and slow down to a reasonable speed. Really no different than when a cop pulls someone on the highway over for speeding, there's absolutely no reason to slow down to 40 mph or whatever. Too often you see people slow down too much creating unnecessary congestion, and even worse you see them weave a bit as they take their eyes off the road.

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Popeye_Card
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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by Popeye_Card »

phinstd wrote:
cardinalkarp wrote:Pretty hard not to look. I won't sit there and examine the accident but I'd also like to add that its not really all that safe to just fly by the accident at the speed limit. You never know what's going on around it.
Agreed. Be repsectful to those involved in the accident (speed wise), but there is no reason to gawk the whole way by...
I think the issue is, traffic is initially slowed, so everyone figures, "Well while I'm going slow anyway, I might as well look..." Rubbernecking has it's own inertia.

phins
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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by phins »

Popeye_Card wrote:
phinstd wrote:
cardinalkarp wrote:Pretty hard not to look. I won't sit there and examine the accident but I'd also like to add that its not really all that safe to just fly by the accident at the speed limit. You never know what's going on around it.
Agreed. Be repsectful to those involved in the accident (speed wise), but there is no reason to gawk the whole way by...
I think the issue is, traffic is initially slowed, so everyone figures, "Well while I'm going slow anyway, I might as well look..." Rubbernecking has it's own inertia.
Sounds entirely plausible. I've been guilty of this myself...

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InvincibleCakeEater
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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by InvincibleCakeEater »

I've seen enough CSI, I'm looking for clues.

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JCShutout
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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by JCShutout »

maddash wrote:
lukethedrifter wrote:You'd be surprised how often there is a secondary accident involving gawkers.
Yeah, I was just going to say the same thing.

Anytime you see police/ambulance lights, you should get out of the lane closest to them and slow down to a reasonable speed. Really no different than when a cop pulls someone on the highway over for speeding, there's absolutely no reason to slow down to 40 mph or whatever. Too often you see people slow down too much creating unnecessary congestion, and even worse you see them weave a bit as they take their eyes off the road.
Agreed, but there is a difference between slowing down to 50 or 40, (or slower, depending on how many lanes are blocked) and crawling along. I presumed the original poster was describing a situation in which only the shoulder was occupied, which should cause some slowdown, but not 60 mph worth.

The worst is when the accident is on the OTHER SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY, (on the shoulder) with those concrete dividers between the highways, and traffic is still at a crawl until a 1/2 mile past the accident.

Its just not that exciting.

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Transmogrified Tiger
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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by Transmogrified Tiger »

This is especially bad in Missouri. Great rant.

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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by Socnorb11 »

JCShutout wrote:
maddash wrote:
lukethedrifter wrote:You'd be surprised how often there is a secondary accident involving gawkers.
Yeah, I was just going to say the same thing.

Anytime you see police/ambulance lights, you should get out of the lane closest to them and slow down to a reasonable speed. Really no different than when a cop pulls someone on the highway over for speeding, there's absolutely no reason to slow down to 40 mph or whatever. Too often you see people slow down too much creating unnecessary congestion, and even worse you see them weave a bit as they take their eyes off the road.
Agreed, but there is a difference between slowing down to 50 or 40, (or slower, depending on how many lanes are blocked) and crawling along. I presumed the original poster was describing a situation in which only the shoulder was occupied, which should cause some slowdown, but not 60 mph worth.

According to the original poster, there wasn't any necessary slowdown at all. He floored it and flew on through. Sounds like traffic wasn't being held up at all.

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JL21
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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by JL21 »

Transmogrified Tiger wrote:This is especially bad in Missouri. Great rant.
I've noticed this as well. I don't have too many gripes about Missouri or specifically, St. Louis, drivers. But this thread's source is one of them.

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JCShutout
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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by JCShutout »

Socnorb11 wrote:According to the original poster, there wasn't any necessary slowdown at all. He floored it and flew on through. Sounds like traffic wasn't being held up at all.
I read it as he floored it after traffic started picking up after the accident, but I might have just read it wrong.

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cardinalkarp
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Re: Accident gawkers

Post by cardinalkarp »

JCShutout wrote:
Socnorb11 wrote:According to the original poster, there wasn't any necessary slowdown at all. He floored it and flew on through. Sounds like traffic wasn't being held up at all.
I read it as he floored it after traffic started picking up after the accident, but I might have just read it wrong.

That's how I interpited it as well. Its something I've done plenty. Once I get past the accident its free and clear!

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