Gawking at car accidents is very common. This is also often referred to as “rubbernecking.” It happens when there is an accident on the side of the road, perhaps with emergency vehicles and first responders clustered around it. The drivers who are still on the road will slow down and look at the accident to see what happened as they go by.
This is a very natural reaction by other drivers, but it’s also quite dangerous. One report claims that roughly 20% of accidents are really secondary accidents. They happen when one driver is looking at a former crash and gets distracted. This distraction can then lead to a rear-end accident if the car ahead of them stops, for instance, or a head-on accident if they drift over the centerline.
Why do people do it?
If gawking or rubbernecking is clearly a distraction, and that distraction can cause serious car accidents, why do people still do it? You’ll often see every single driver turn their head as they go by, even if most of them are lucky enough not to crash as a result.
Often, researchers believe that the issue is just that humans have strong survival instincts. It’s not just car accidents that draw our attention. Many other types of disasters do the same, such as house fires, plane crashes or even criminal activity. Your body sees a potentially dangerous situation and your brain focuses on it because it’s trying to identify the risks and keep you safe.
The irony, of course, is that this focus by a person’s brain may directly lead to a car accident. If you’ve been injured by another negligent driver, you need to know how to seek financial compensation.