Rubbernecking at accidents

haulagebasher

I was coming up from Cork to Cahir along the motor way a few weeks ago and on the downside of the motorway there was a gaurds car in the hard shoulder with the flashers on and a silver car upside down in the grass. Single vehicle and the road was not blocked but even on my up side the traffic was down to 20-30 kph due to the amount of people slowing down to gawk out across the barrier wall at the fairly uneventful incident.

Its pretty bad and it seems to be getting worse nowadays as every clown with an iphone also wants to take pictures or videos of crashes. Rediculous stuff and ends up causing more crashes becasue people end up getting rearended when they stop to gawk.

coylemj

Unless the Gardai get large screens to (ahem!) screen off the incident, you will always get rubbernecking.

Doesn't need to be an accident, I was coming up the M7 heading towards Dublin on Sunday week last, the traffic in the outer lane was going suspiciously slow but it was passing out the inner lane. I discovered the problem when we came up level with two vintage cars doing about 50 mph in the inside lane, everyone passing them out was slowing down to admire them.

Driving on motorways these days is so boring that anything will distract drivers.

TURRICAN

So what do you do just zoom past and have no respect for emergency services trying to help sombody?

Bruthal

TURRICAN wrote: »

So what do you do just zoom past and have no respect for emergency services trying to help sombody?

Slowing down on the unaffected side of a motorway to gawk, is not done to show respect.

MugMugs

TURRICAN wrote: »

So what do you do just zoom past and have no respect for emergency services trying to help sombody?

Yup because not doing so will cause tail backs along with the fact that a slight brake at the front turns into a sharp brake further back causing more accidents and further disruption.

I read that the police in the UK have begun filming rubber neckers and prosecuting afterwards.

101sean

Yep, apparently at one incident they turned a video camera on the opposite carraigeway and videoed drivers taking pics of the accident on their mobiles :eek:

haulagebasher

My father was particularly bad for rubbernecking. Two incidents stick out in my mind, both happened a long time ago probably in the mid to late 1990's.

One was when Dad, my brother and I were coming back from visiting a sick neighbour in hospital in Cork and on the old N8 between Mitchelstown and Cahir we came upon a white hatchback that had capsized onto its roof in the hard shoulder. I think it was a peugeot of some sort. The ESs were on the scene as one man had an injury. Let alone slowing down to look, he actually stopped in about 20m beyond the upturned car, got out and went back to have a look at the accident. Us being about 10 (me) and 14ish naturally got out and went with dad.
After a good look around dad started chatting to one of the two men in the upturned car who had gotten out about the whole thing. The man who had gotten out of the car was unphased by the whole thing and was saying to the man in to car get out because there was nothing wrong with him and was poking him with his foot in through the passenger window. The man dad was talking to had split the windscreen with his head and had blood down his arm.
I think another car stopped in as well further up and the occupants also came back for a look and a chat. Rediculous like.

Another time a few years after we were having dinner in the Holy Cross pub outside Waterford on the Cork bound N25 and again it was me, brother and the father. Anyway about half way through the meal we somehow became aware that there had been a crash just outside the pub on the main road. I shít you not: about half, if not more, of the people in the pub (including ourselves) all went outside into the carpark and up near the side of the road to have a good look. It happend just on the waterford end of the pub. It was a light pukey green colour car anyway nearest us and another one somewhere else I think. Everybody just stood there chatting away until the fire brigade and ambulance arrived. They cut the roof off and two firemen pushed / bent the passenger door back towards the front to take the woman out. She was in bad enough way I think as I remember her bawling. First time I ever witnessed anything like it. Anyway when all the drama of the situation had passed and things calmed down everybody just went back inside the pub. We finished up the meal and when we were going back out of the carpark going home or whatever the cars were cleared. FFS like.

He was bad for it alright.

TURRICAN

Sorry lads didn't see the motorway part
Apology for mr op

coylemj

MugMugs wrote: »

Yup because not doing so will cause tail backs along with the fact that a slight brake at the front turns into a sharp brake further back causing more accidents and further disruption.

+1 Happened on the old Ennis road a few years ago as reported by AA Roadwatch on the radio.

The road was icy and someone braked or slowed down, the guy behind him went into the back of him and there was the usual pileup because the people behind were going too fast for the conditions and couldn't stop on time.

On the other side of the road someone going in the opposite direction slowed down to have a gawk at the incident and there was another pileup!

Murt10

Jack Dee in one of his shows said that if he was after being held up for hours in a traffic jam, then the least he was entitled to, was to have a really good gawk at the cause of him being held up. His logic was that other people had slowed down and rubbernecked making him late so he was entitled to do the same.

Wholeheartedly agreed with him.

Colonel Sanders

Was actually gonna post something very similar myself tonight.

I remember when I first started driving & heard "onlookers are causing a delay" on the traffic news. Was shocked that idiots would slow down on a high speed patch of road to have a look

The reason I was gonna post was this evening it took me 20 minutes to get from Templeogue junction on the M50 to past the red cow (travelling north bound). Traffic in all 3 lanes was bumper to bumper. Must have been an accident I thought

There was indeed an accident, however the accident was just before the red cow as you travel SOUTHBOUND! As soon as I was past you could see that the road wasn't very busy at all as you headed towards the N4 exit

I travel the M50 daily and am well used to idiocy mainly in the form of drivers who can't drive but this was one of the biggest displays of mass idiocy I have ever had the misfortune of coming across FFS

mondymike

Colonel Sanders wrote: »

Was actually gonna post something very similar myself tonight.

I remember when I first started driving & heard "onlookers are causing a delay" on the traffic news. Was shocked that idiocies would slow down on a high speed patch if road to have a look

The reason I was gonna post was this evening it took me 20 minutes to get from Templeogue junction on the M50 to past the red cow (travelling north bound). Traffic in all 3 lanes wee bumper to bumper. Must have been an accident I thought

There was indeed an accident, however the accident was just before the red cow as you travel SOUTHBOUND! As soon as I was past you could see that the road wasn't very busy at all as you headed towards the N4 exit

I travel the M50 daily and am well used to idiocy mainly in the form of drivers who can't drive but this was one of the biggest displays of mass idiocy I have ever had the misfortune of coming across FFS

Why can't they have a hospital screen type of device in the patrol car. Arrive on scene as first responder and envelops the area?

A-Trak

Human nature TBH. Just different degrees, some would drive by with a swift glance and hope no ones badly hurt. Others will slow to a crawl to explicitly see if someone's hurt.

Neither are wrong, just human.

Colonel Sanders

Murt10 wrote: »

His logic was that other people had slowed down and rubbernecked making him late so he was entitled to do the same.

Wholeheartedly agreed with him.

Are you actually serious? Not about Jack Dee but the highlighted bit

ABajaninCork

Drives me mad. It's not the accident that's the cause of the delay, it's people slowing down to have a good look!

I remember travelling down the M1 from Middlesbrough to London. Just past Leeds. we hit traffic. Was held up so long, I actually switched off the engine, pulled up the handbrake and settled down with my book!

Was held up five hours. By the time I reached the accident, it was clear, but the police were still there. People were actually stopping to ask the police what happened!!

Supergurrier

Was a pretty bad accident there afew weeks ago in Caherlistrane village near where i live and i was pulling into a petrol station across the road to fill up on a day off

You would not believe the amount of people standing in the forecourt and across the road watching as the poor guy was cut from the car, you would swear they were watching a soap opera, i had to beep to get to the pumps and then i got a look from some aul wan as i made her move afew feet.

Idiocy of the highest order

doolox

I was caught up in this tripe on the M50 tonight. I was full sure that there was a crash on the northbound outer lanes of the M50 before you get to the N4 jct. NO it was an accident on the other side of the solid wall on the southbound lane.

I wish I had 30mm cannon on my car to take out the 100's of IDIOTS doing 20kph or less and coming to several dead stops on the outer lanes of the M50 northbound when they had no reason to do so.

DO YOUR JOB. Let the emergency services do theirs on the other side of the motorway.

These simian morons give me the creeps.