[Closed] How to deal with rubberneckers

It does take some self control to focus on the road and not sneak a quick look

Only if you're a moron.

Good work that cop. They should do that here.

I like that coppers attitude....Shame on You....now you must pay 128,000 euro...

I thought this thread was about the new forest dogging associations bank holiday meeting.

Only thing that wrong with that situation is blurring the rubberneckers' faces out. Good work, officer.

128,000 Euro seems a bit steep for an on-the-spot fine, though.

I see this all the time. It gets right on my tits.

Plenty of it going on on the A1 near Wakefield (northbound carriageway accident, 9mile tailback)

We (southbound) endured a 3mile queue just so some arseholes could try and peak over the carriage way to see a bloke in a white van rear ended a fiesta..

🤷‍♂️

Don't mention driving past Stonehenge ----every friggin time there is a tailback for NO reason. Its a pile of big stones FFS its not that great. If you want to look at it properly park in the car park and then look.

Slowing around an accident is usually unavoidable. Something goes crunch, bits of bumper all over the place, people getting out of cars and mixing with traffic. The sensible thing if you're close behind the incident is to slow to a crawl so you can avoid people and debris, after that it's just the knock on effect on traffic behind. Photos and vids are a bit tasteless, but of course you're going to look and see what's kept you held up in the queue for ages, and if someone who normally speeds along like a **** sees something that gives them pause for thought, that's fine by me.

We (southbound) endured a 3mile queue just so some arseholes could try and peak over the carriage way to see a bloke in a white van rear ended a fiesta..

So you had a look at what had happened, then? 🤔

That whole paragraph just explains that you don't actually know what rubbernecking is.

Agreed. Hear it on the traffic news quite a bit, 'hold up due to rubber-neckers'. Delay is caused by the accident and people braking to avoid whatever initially happened (including the folks on the other carriageway). IME people aren't slowing from 70 to a crawl to take a pic. Driving past a World Heritage Site accepted of course.

/edit - beaten to it

My post was to midlifecrashes (appropriate).
I mean.. no, christ sake I don't really need to [i]explain[/i]!

I can't see how an accident on one carriage way can have no affect on the other. For example you see blue lights ahead. You lift off until your sure they aren't on your side?

I was in a cable car in Italy once when the ski patrol loaded in a kid in a stretcher. People who were already on the cable car pushed through the crowd to take a photo of the boy in the stretcher. I found that pretty bizarre.

Obviously, obvz is obvz and you are going to slow down to avoid debris and people... if its on your carriageway..

But slowing down to see what is on the opposite carriageway when we’re all flowing quite nicely up until then is bizarre.

Still, it was good to see those Patrol Wombles clearing the debris and clearing one lane for the flow of traffic.

Well you'll have to educate me then, as well as the folk on the radio doing traffic reports, and the police giving info to the traffic report people. I understand it to mean gawking at something you find interesting, or slightly more interesting than the bumper of the Zafira in front, which you've been looking at for the last half hour stop start at 3mph.

As for how one carriageway affects another, I was stuck on the M62 last summer while the aftermath of a motorbike collision took place, the bloke's head rolled quite a way into the our carriageway, maybe they need to make the helmets less round and a bit more Kryton shaped.

I understand it to mean gawking at something you find interesting, or slightly more interesting than the bumper of the Zafira in front, which you’ve been looking at for the last half hour stop start at 3mph.

The reason you've spent the last half hour at 3mph is because people are lifting off and looking over the central reservation at whatever carnage / fender bender has occurred.

Maybe they should just put a fence in the central reservation like they do at some roundabouts. Any reason why not? Wouldn't even need to be solid, panels at ~45deg would block drivers view of the other side whilst moving.

Would so love to do that here but I'd get disciplined for traumatising the poor darlings. We position mobile screens along the central reservation to shield a curious motoring public from the things they think they want to see....until they see them and complain. Plus, we really really don't want the public looking on, or filming / uploading when extracting the deceased. Precious little dignity in death as it is without some ghouls hanging about for a selfie.

I agree downshep, slowing down for a gawp isn't on, but most of the time us gawpers are a captive audience, slowed down by the aftermath of the incident itself. If we could be on our way, most of us wouldn't look more than making sure our way was clear. Saying rubberneckers are causing delays just isn't how it happens in my experience.

I agree downshep, slowing down for a gawp isn’t on, but most of the time us gawpers are a captive audience, slowed down by the aftermath of the incident itself. If we could be on our way, most of us wouldn’t look more than making sure our way was clear. Saying rubberneckers are causing delays just isn’t how it happens in my experience.

The problem is the first person lifts off a bit to have a look, the second person coasts past, the third taps the brakes, .........., the 50th person slows to a crawl, .........., 100th person slows to a crawl and doesn't pick up speed until they're well past as they've earnt a look at what they've sat in a queue for an hour waiting for, and everyone blames the car in front.

It's a different problem to people actually stopping to have a look and take photos, but it's what causes most of the delays.

The first time I saw temporary roadside screens being erected was in Germany - large versions of the sort of things they use around hospital cubicles.

They're pretty liberal in their use of them, which does ease congestion around collisions. I guess fines help too!

The amount traffic slows due to an unrelated incident in the other direction does cheese me off.

The biggest problem is second and subsequent collisions occuring while dealing with the initial incident. Motorway gantries aren't universally sited over the whole network and even if present, temp limits and red X lane closures are widely ignored. Bad enough that these secondaries occur on the same side as the original bump but they are just as likely to be caused by rubberneckers on the other carriageway mis-timing their 'gawp' at the carnage just as the person in front brakes for their 'gawp'.

As we have already deployed local resources to deal with the initial bump, response times for subsequent incidents suffer, increasing the risk of a vicious circle of more gawping, tailbacks & bumps. Worst I've had is 4 subsequent bumps on the M8 at Charing Cross while dealing with a minor tea time shunt on the other carriageway. All 4 were caused by rubber neckers rear ending each other. Traffic flow didn't fully recover until after 10pm.

Christ... rubbernecking [i]did[/i] need to be explained..! I am amazed.

Here's what happened last time I passed an accident on the other side of the carriageway - there was NOTHING on my side of the carriageway, (I think it was the A34 - long straights where you can see a long way ahead). So my side slows to a crawl... no debris, nothing, just some dickheads having to try to see a crash. So I'm behind this pillock with his head turned, slows... there's a gap, I want to go 70mph, so as I put my foot down, said pillock actually stops! STOPS dead to get a better look! I almost hit the back of his shitty car, but obviously there's then another concertina effect behind me then having to stop again.. Thank **** I don't have to drive very often amongst these thick bastards.

You see plenty of people now slow down & hold up their phones to film as they drive by.

I know the term rubber-necking is associated with the above, but as a kid we used to call rubber-necking when someone was just about to fall asleep sat in a chair, and their head slowly falls forward to the point where they suddenly awaken and their head springs back up with a look of surprise and confusion.
To me that will always be the true meaning of rubber-necking...

@alanf isn't that a wobblehead?

To me that will always be the true meaning of rubber-necking

I do that in the car all the time. That's acceptable. More so than the other sort anyway 😉

The link I posted may have been taken down, so here is The original report from BR24 (in German)

And an article in English: https://www.thelocal.de/20190522/shame-on-you-german-police-officer-praised-for-confronting-prying-drivers

@Phil5556 - quite possibly... we always called it rubber necking as it's almost like there's a rubber band in the back of your neck and when it stretches too far your head is catapulted back into position.
Once someone was spotted in the position of about to rubber neck, everyone else would wait for the jolt and then piss themselves, with rubber necker (wobbleheader?) completely oblivious.
You didn't want to be the rubber necker!

@DezB - as long as your not driving 🙂