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We all Rubberneck - even you OldSock. Impossible not to, it's human nature.
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Sorry to disappoint, RTB, but years of training and a sense of 'there but by the grace of God go I' mean that I really don't......
Years ago I saw the aftermath of a fatal accident on the A1 and images still come back to me occasionally. I'd rather not have any more.
Edited by OldSock on 12/12/2007 at 12:26
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Fair comment OldSock ... I can see how that might keep you looking straight ahead.
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Dealing with a serious RTC on a motorway the other night, the rubberneckers were well in evidence when we opened one lane in an attempt to clear the tailback. Right up to the point when the were straying over into the closed lanes putting the emergency services personnel at risk.
You might not like being delayed, but I don't get payed to get knocked over.
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Very true MLC. So the sooner you get the mess shoveled over to the side of the road, the less time you and your colleagues will be in the risk zone.
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< Ulla>
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Of course, we shouldn't have bothered cutting the casualties out. Next time we'll push them into the ditch to keep you happy.
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Don?t be a facetious martyr now MLC. You know exactly what I mean. Speed is of the essence, both for the victims and those working to extricate them and get them out and away for treatment Ok sometimes you need to stabilise at the scene. Speed is
also required once the casualties are up and away, to clear up the mess. But then you guys start your scenes of crime rubbish and you know that?s what I am getting at.
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< Ulla>
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AE, I trust that when you parked in the bus you did it hard enough to push both vehicles off the road and keep it clear for us safe drivers????? :)
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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but why do they have to close motorways for 10+ hours because of a RTA?
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Why? They have to wait for Inspector Morse & Co to show up.
Edited by Round The Bend on 12/12/2007 at 12:50
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Bobby as it happens, yes I did.
The goona was on the left grass verge half in a hedge. The bus was on the right verge half up a tree. The road was clear.
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< Ulla>
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How did I know you would have managed that!!
Bet you kept the accelerator down just to make sure!
And by clearing the hedge and tree away you made room for the helicopter medics? :)
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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The hedge was a bit distressed, but the tree just dropped a few conkers.
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< Ulla>
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LOL :)
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2007 Seat Altea XL 2.0 TDI (140) Stylance
2005 Skoda Fabia vrS
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I don't rubberneck, because I'm watching the guy in front, who's slowed down , because of the guy in front-----etc.
It's the one at the front who's rubbernecking.
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No I don't. I just can't get interested in someone else's accident at all. Also I know that many an accident is caused by people slowing down to gaze at an accident on the other carriageway.
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L\'escargot.
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Yes - I look if the lights are flashing .Its natural curiosity to look at whats happened and try and work out why.
Maybe we're opening HJ's favourite can of worms again of the police investigation road closures but I passed the scene of a cyclist fatality in collision with a lorry on the A264 just this week.
This is a dual carriageway where I passed the scene on the other carriageway.There was little option but to look as we inched past the scene because the traffic everywhere for miles was nose to tail in a gridlock .
This was caused by the closure of the opposite carriageway to traffic so that the investigation could be carried out by Police. Lorry was still there , no sign of a bike and three police cars with officers busy around the lorry when I passed at 8.30 ish and they had been there a while.
Collision was at 5.15 am according to reports in the local papers , road was re-opened at 10.28 so five hours of mayhem for commuters.
I have every sympathy with the victims family wanting a full investigation but this closure must have affected thousands of people in various ways.
Its only a couple of weeks ago that an accident and closure of the M23 caused similar mayhem.
Just where do you draw the line.
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Even if not dangerous, stopping or slowing down significantly just to gawp at an accident is undignified in the extreme. But curiosity is human nature. You can't see much though in a quick glance out of the corner of your eye.
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>Rubbernecking - do you?
No. I'm frightened of what I might see. And that's the honest answer.
(And no, don't open the "Why was the road closed for 5 hours?!" can of worms please)
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(And no, don't open the "Why was the road closed for 5 hours?!" can of worms please)
I only mention it because I recall an accident in Wellesley Road which is a major dual carriageway in Croydon many years ago , early seventies where an old lady was run over by a reversing lorry and killed, it happened about 10 yards from a subway which she should have used .
I happened to walk past the scene with my sister in law where the accident had just happened and it was not a pretty sight as I was starting my lunch hour. Emergency services were dealing , no road closure.
I returned past the scene an hour or so later , no sign at all except some sand left by the fire brigade to cover up the blood with a Police van sitting over it.
I seem to remember thinking what a shame but then blanked it out.
No sign of the lorry or any thought of road closure.
It is just remarkable how police and public attitudes have changed in thirty years or so as amply illustrated by 'Life on Mars'....
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At least your rubbernecking seems to be confined to accidents. Here, almost anything even slightly unusual is cause for rubbernecking. I have even been held up by drivers rubbernecking at someone doing a wheelchange presumably because of a puncture. Delays here have really only begun in the recent few years, forced by the coroners who complained that the police didn't give them enough evidence at their enquiries, so the police were pushed into treating every accident as a full scene-of-crime.
A few months back, a U.S. salesman arrived here trying to sell a digital camera plus software setup which was supposed to be used to photograph the wreckage, skidmarks, etc and then allow investigative analysis later. The wreckage could then be quickly loaded up and taken to a suitable place for forensic analysis in comfort instead of at the roadside. Allegedly minutes rather than hours.
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>I'm frightened of what I might see. And that's the honest answer.
Quite so. There was something nasty on the southbound M40 last night (Thursday). I was going north about an hour after it happened, and had to crawl past the scene, presumably because people were slowing down to look. (I was in the left lane of four, so couldn't have seen much anyway.)
Since I go that way a lot, this morning I looked at a couple of local paper websites for a report. No fatalities this time - although there seemed to be an awful lot of vehicles involved - but in the process, I found a report of an accident that had delayed me on my way south two weeks previously. That one killed a woman the same age as me, who leaves two small sons the same ages as mine. The article showed a picture of her with her boys; shockingly, horribly upsetting - and my first thought on the day was "Bother, it's going to take me another half-hour to get to work."
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I used to. But after a frightening experience on the M62 I do it no longer. I was on the way to Leeds for a terribly boring training course and there was a Corsa on the hard shoulder with the front stoved in. "Lummee," I thought, "that's in a mess.....aaaaaaaaaaaaaggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh!" as the rear end of a Transit loomed large in front of me. I jammed on the brakes and steered left sharpish and somehow managed to avoid an almighty hullabaloo. I still give thanks to anti-lock brakes and the fact that there was nothing in the inside lane. Took me ages to clean the driver's seat too...
Cheers
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I'm normally far too busy with radio, mobile phone, satnav etc to rubberneck at someone else's misfortune. However, if I have SWMBO with me, I instruct her to rubberneck on my behalf, work out what's going on - and give me a commentary.
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"if I have SWMBO with me, I instruct her to rubberneck on my behalf, work out what's going on - and give me a commentary"
Which is exactly what I do.
PS
You left out the coffee/burger and book from your list ! :-)
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When this thread first came up I thought 'yep, course I do'. Someone else mentioned that they liked to have at least seen what had held them up for such a long time- that rang true to me as well- nothing more annoying than getting to the scene of the hold up only to find nothing there- or so I thought.
I was travelling on the M40 southbound last night and was about quarter of a mile behind the big accident when it happened (about 10 vehicles), motorway subsequently shut and I was sitting stationary for a long time- all the while thinking it would be nice to see the kids before bed. I knew it had only just happened as there seemed to be a long stream of fire engines, ambulances and police cars going past as we sat there.
They eventually let the immediate traffic pass, and I ended up seeing the accident at close hand as I went past, despite the police trying to get us past as quickly as possible. What I saw shocked me beyond belief, by far the worst I have seen with a number of cars unrecognisable having been sandwiched between lorries.
It really made me think how fortunate I was to be actually getting home to my family last night. Such a tragic thing to happen at any time- let alone this close to Christmas- as you say WDB no fatalities this time, but some very serious injuries according to some paper reports. All I could picture last night when trying to get to sleep was the scene I had passed. Not a pretty picture.
I guess what also hit home was that I had stopped at one of the services further up the road for all of a few minutes to clean my headlights (they were caked in winter dirt) and thought that if I hadn't done that I could have easily been caught up in it myself.
My thoughts really go out to those (and their families) involved.
As for rubbernecking now. I think I'll avoid it if at all possible.
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Probably one of the most sensitive and sensible posts I've read on M-way accidents.
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no not if i can help it..any way i got cctv in my van so i can rewind and have a long look later on..
Oh yeah i got my van hit 4 times in 3 months caused by rubber neckers watching me do a tyre change on a truck and a van before now..
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Rubbernecking really gets my goat so no, I can honestly say I don't.
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Whats happening on the M40 these days? This year its had three very big major fatal accidents
Its always been one of the fastest driven motorways in the south with high average speeds, but its always been relatively trouble free till now.
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< Ulla>
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That crash on the M40, all caused by people driving too close. I would say that 80-90% of vehicles drive too close.
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I use the M40 so much more than any other motorway that it's hard for me to say whether it's any worse for the kind of too-fast, too-close driving that tends to be the norm at busy times on motorways.
I'm usually on that High Wycombe-M25 southbound stretch a bit before eight in the morning. Traffic speeds seem generally reasonable for the time of day, but the nose-to-tail convoys that build up in the right-hand lane, generally travelling at marginally more than HGV speed but close enough to read each other's sat-navs - give me the willies. If anyone's watching, I'll be the one in the green Volvo, trundling along at 55 or so in the deeply unfashionable - and so frequently deserted - left-hand lane of the four. It doesn't seem to get me to work any later, and I feel a little more in control of the space around me.
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