Accidents cause accidents…………………

How many times have you been stuck in traffic because of an accident up ahead? It can even be in the opposite lane of travel on a divided highway and it still slows or stops traffic traveling the other direction.

So many times I’ve been on a highway working an accident scene as a firefighter/paramedic and had vehicles running into each other within feet of where I was working. I may have been halfway in a vehicle attending to a patient or walking to the fire engine to get some equipment, and then it happens. The hair raising screech of tires locked up and then the crunch of metal, and flying debris, as another vehicle is wrecked.

Police, Fire and EMS workers are placed in constant danger by drivers slowing down to look at the first accident, instead of watching where they’re driving. They put on brakes instead of driving safely through the accident scene, and then are struck by the vehicle following. Sometimes these vehicles end up crashing into the emergency workers, at the original accident.

Where I’m going with this story is to emphasize focusing on driving when approaching the accident scene, and leave the looking at the crunched up cars to your passengers. If all drivers paid attention to the cars ahead of them there would be fewer accidents causing accidents………………………….