Road accidents?

[~*familyof3*~]

Ok so today we drove right past a accident. Two ambos police ect ect. The road we were pulling out of it was right there you couldnt miss it.

Now im telling the children to look ok of the right side window....accident was on the left.They were asking why. As im trying to tell then the car next to us an older man pulls up closer to the car in front of him im talking maybe an inch or two from the car in front and he was leaning right over the steering wheel...why he was trying to get a look at what was going on. UGH

So here i am telling the kids i want them to look they other way.....Because i think we should show some respect for the people whom are involed.They deserve some privacy and so yes we shouldnt be trying to have a look. I explained to them how would they feel if it were them who were hurt and they had crowds of strangers looking.

So what would you say is the right thing in these case's. I honestly think its rude and disrespectful to sit there and try and be nosey???

[LuluHB]

I think more than anything its just plain dangerous to rubber neck like that. I would be trying to distract my kids from looking too, although TBH more because I don't want them to see anything awful than for the privacy of drivers involved in the crash.

[~*familyof3*~]

Well thats a big part of it too, but i didnt say that to them i was pretty sure if i did it would make them try and look more :S

[Cranky Kitten]

Ugh, rubber-neckers are so annoying and rude. Whilst I don't generally try to distract my daughter from seeing it as we drive by, we don't stickybeak either. More slow down a little as we pass so any emergency workers nearby are safe and continue about our business.

[beansbeans!]

I try and get the girls to lok the other way so they dont see whats going on. But at the same time it seems to be a natural reaction to slow down and have a look at whats going on. Thats human curiosity. We see the danger, look to see what caused it, and somehow learn how to avoid it. (well thats my thoughts anyhow. I see a crash that is a result of speeding and I have a look at the damage to the car, to the people and it reminds me that yes I need to slow down, that I am damagable like those people. itms?)

As for what is the right etiquette? I suppose theres nothing really wrong with a quick look, but not one that takes your entire attention off the road and the traffic around you. Probably not eye contact with the people involved as well.

A few weeks back we went past an accident just after it happened. It was nasty. It was that recent that no help had arrived, cars had stopped everywhere with a couple of passerby's directing traffic. Until we reached the accident I couldnt get the girls to look the other way, and they saw all. They asked questions and the rest of our trip was filled with discussions about being safe and why its important to wear seatbelts, watch for cars and what not. As we passed the car, 4 people in that car were getting cpr. Which again caused discussion for what they were doing. It was a nasty accident that has affected me pretty badly. Yet at the same time we (me and the girls) learnt a lot from a quick glance at some people's unfortunate circumstances.

[~*familyof3*~]

Oh my gosh im sorry yous had to see that. Hope they all made a.recovery.

I will explain the accident was at a set of lights and we were stopped as it was red. But it was a bad one between a 4wd and a cycerlist.

pls excuse the spelling mistakes on my galaxcy

[Onelittleprincess]

DH looks but purely at the car - working at a smash repair and doing tows for nearly 15 years it's curiosity.

[Phteven]

I don't like rubber-necking. The amount of traffic jams I have been in where you get to the end and discover that the jam was caused by people slowing down to stare is enormous. And it's rude. If I crash I don't want people staring at me.
I try to distract my children by pointing out an interesting cloud or silly sign or similar instead of saying don't look. Sometimes if there is nothing else I "see" an elephant then discover I'm just a doofus

[megs]

I think unfortuantely it is just the way people are.

My son broke his femur at Auskick last year. He was on the oval for a period of time whilst we waited for the ambulance and in a considerable amount of pain. I was shocked at the amount of parents (and I know the parents were at the oval as I had seen them) who allowed their kids to hover around. Even when the ambulance officers arrived and were trying to stablise my son , getting pain relief etc they were still standing around. It wasn't out of concern it was just plain curiosity.

I can't understand why the parents would want their kids seeing another child in such pain. When he was moved onto the strecher it was horrible to watch and listen to yet these kids were rubber necking away. I'm quessing they end up being the said adults that pull up as close as they can to traffic lights.

I might add that I didn't really want all these kids hanging around also I was distraught enough without having little people sticking there heads in.

[ss_storm]

I think it's just natural human curiosity... And really I think would prefer crawling by in slow traffic than cars whizzing past and not even realizing there was a situation ahead which they needed to slow down for.
I'm not sure about trying to distract kids from it..guess it would depend how serious the accident was, but especially for older children it presents a good opportunity to discuss road/driver safety. DF is a tow truck driver, so I guess DD will be somewhat used to growing up 'around' the debris of accidents.

[AndiE]

Well, my kids are obsessed with ambulances ... so for me, if my kids saw one there's no way they'd look anywhere else. Um, not that I'd deliberately slow down so they could have a longer look. I have to agree with some of the posters ... for me, it's not good form to slow down and gawk. To be honest, many sticky beaks CAUSE accidents - traffic jams at worst - by slowing down when driving past crash sites. Best to keep on driving and pray/hope for the health of those involved in the crash.

[aussienic]

We drove past an accident on the highway once and my dh asked the kids to look the other way. They asked why and he simply said to give them some privacy and I dont want you to see something you don't want to.

[Kazzo]

I think unfortuantely it is just the way people are.

My son broke his femur at Auskick last year. He was on the oval for a period of time whilst we waited for the ambulance and in a considerable amount of pain. I was shocked at the amount of parents (and I know the parents were at the oval as I had seen them) who allowed their kids to hover around. Even when the ambulance officers arrived and were trying to stablise my son , getting pain relief etc they were still standing around. It wasn't out of concern it was just plain curiosity.

I can't understand why the parents would want their kids seeing another child in such pain. When he was moved onto the strecher it was horrible to watch and listen to yet these kids were rubber necking away. I'm quessing they end up being the said adults that pull up as close as they can to traffic lights.

I might add that I didn't really want all these kids hanging around also I was distraught enough without having little people sticking there heads in.

I agree about the natural curiosity. I was in a bad car accident when I was 5 and my mum told me that there were so many people around watching, they came out of there houses and because traffic was stopped they got out of their cars and came and watched. I was unconcious and don't remember the accident at all because of amnesia so I don't remember but it has always made me turn away whenever there is any sort of incident whether it be a car accident or something else.

I also used to work with racehorses, one morning I had a young colt jump on me and he broke my upper right arm. I remember been amazed at how many people stopped and just stood around watching, even as they were cutting my jacket and top off they all just watched. The ambulence guy ended up yelling for everyone to bugger off. I liked him, even more when he finally gave me the morphine I wanted so badly.

[megs]

Glad that you don't have memory of the accident Kazzo. Suprisingly my son doesn't appear to remember much from breaking his leg (pity I still do).

I think I was more surprised that parents were letting children as young as 3 watch it. Even for their own childs sake, I know I wouldn't want my 3 year old watching a child in obvious distress.

Ambulance Officers do a fantastic job. Glad to hear you got a good one.

[No.5]

I always say accidents cause accidents! It is human nature to look but I try not to because I know if it were me I wouldn't like to be watched (even though I know I would).

I try and make up stories about something that's happening on the other side so DS doesn't see. The other day I told him to look out his side and he'd see a tractor (there was one a but further up the road).