I caught this little story while on vacation. Now I won't usually 'work' while on vacation, but this is something that I couldn't resist talking about.
Original Article, Toronto Star, Tuesday December 22, 2009.
"A speeding car that flipped in the westbound lanes of the Gardiner Expressway early Sunday may have caused a second accident in the opposite direction minutes later.The downtown highway was snarled with two accidents around 3 a.m. after the first vehicle rolled over into outer ditch.
Police believe that a taxi travelling eastbound may have been rubber-necking when it crashed into the guardrails shortly afterwards.
Only minor injuries were reported from both crashes."
I've seen this many times while investigating collisions. As someone standing on the side of the road you can see it coming. This is a collision of pure ignorance. Ignorance for other drivers, for yourself and for the emergency workers that have to respond to your collision, because what you were driving past was more important than where you were driving.
You can exchange ignorance with whatever word you would choose, but it fits. You are driving in a state of ignorance, "lack of knowledge, education or awareness" (Meriam Webster OnLine Dictionary).
I've seen this myself time and time again on our highways. I understand that curiosity is part of human nature but at what cost?
ReplyDeleteToo often, our roads come to a grinding and sometimes crashing halt because of rubber neckers taking in the scene of a collision. Often leading to secondary collisions. These are NOT accidents and are very much avoidable. In fact, with the exception of a serious and unforeseen mechanical failure, all collisions on our roads are avoidable...therefore not accidents at all.
I've said this many times before and it seems right to say it again...there is no excuse for paying anything less than 100% attention to the task of driving. Your life and the lives of others, depend on it.
Driving is by far the most dangerous task in our day to day lives and should be treated as such. Pay attention...keep your eyes on the road. The more you look at the sidelines, the far greater you are putting yourself and those around you at risk.
The number one key to safer roads is safer road users. It's time everyone realized that fact.
Shaun