Shock and Awe

Accidents on the side of the road are a common sight on highways across America. With every accident comes "gawkers," and with gawkers comes slow traffic. I've never been able to understand why people feel the need to slow down and gawk at an accident. This is especially frustrating on highways. There is a speed limit to maintain, please do so! Now I can understand slowing traffic for the safety of the victims and the emergency personnel. But I can't tell you how many times I've been crawling miles through traffic and thought to myself, "must be a bad accident up ahead," only to discover that it was a fender bender pulled over on the road. Was it worth slowing traffic? No way! If there was a semi engulfed in flames on the shoulder I might understand slowing down to take a look. But thankfully I've never had that chance. I guess what really bothers me is that people's curiosity gets the better of them and they jam everything up. They need to see the wreckage, the bodies thrown from the car and the EMS crew giving CPR to a businessman. I don't need to see it and I can't understand why people feel the need to stop and stare. But then again I'm impatient and I want to get where I'm going as fast as I can.