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We've all seen them on TV, in movies, and on the news...most recently, Ryan Dunn and his fiery alcohol fueled deathrace(I'll touch on that in another blog). We're amazed, shocked, and entertained by them. They fascinate us to no end. We're like cats in the window watching a bird hop across the lawn. We slow down and stare, trying to catch a glimpse of blood, bodies, guts and other carnage. Yet, when it happens to us, or someone that we know, we're horrified. We cry, we mourn, we call the hospitals and next-of-kin frantically, trying to make sure that our friend, co-worker, or relative is okay. We talk about how awful it is, and how disgusting it is to watch people stare at the accident scene as they drive by(if we're there). We cry about how much we/our loved ones are hurting, or how horrible the injuries that killed them were. We often say that we wouldn't wish any of it on anyone...but is that really true?
What is it that draws our attention to crashes when they don't involve people that we care about? Why is it suddenly entertainment, when it's not us or someone that we know? We laugh and make jokes if the circumstances of the accident are funny. We show the victims the same disrespect that, were the shoe on the other foot, we'd be upset by. Personally, I make it a point to avoid passing through the scene of an accident acting like this. I don't want to stare at the carnage. It saddens me to think that someone may have been injured or killed in an accident. Besides, the news will fill me in on all of the details, and if the accident is alcohol related, then the individual drinking, is not worthy of my respect or sympathy.
I drove by a horrible crash once on an icy highway West of Regina, Saskatchewan. The police were on scene and so there was no need for me to get involved, so I carried on as normal, hoping that nobody was seriously injured or killed. A few days later, I got the awful news that one of the two victims killed, was a great guy that I went to high school with. Imagine how terrible I'd have felt had I gawked and made quips about the icy roads and going too fast. He was killed when an 18-wheeler lost control, slid into the ditch, and hit him while he and a DOH(DOT to you American folks) snowplow operator were trying to help friends of his who had hit the ditch. They died trying to help others, and many would just gawk, make a quip about slowing down, and carry on.
So next time you see a crash, think about how you'd feel if it were somebody that you knew, or yourself. How would you feel about others being entertained by your misfortune? What about the traffic backup that you create by driving at a crawl to gawk? People have places to go, and it's tough for emergency workers to get things done when they have a pile of cars crawling through in their way. Best to just read it in the news the next day...or if you're ever so unfortunate(God forbid)...to get a call from the police. That's just me though. Maybe I'm wrong.
