I confess: I have rubbernecked at accidents. And I’ve been in long lines on Interstate 25 that were caused almost entirely by rubberneckers who were trying to get a glimpse of a car accident.
You know what happens next… those rubberneckers run into each other causing rear-ends on the highway.
This is actually the second-most-common accident we see! Generally, these rear-end accidents occur on I-25 between Denver and the Denver Tech Center and generally at speeds of 20 to 30 miles an hour when traffic is high. These rear-end accidents on the highway are a direct result of distracted driving.
The biggest mistake that people make in these accidents is that they don’t call the police! They are on the highway and they don’t want to clog up traffic further, or they are in a hurry. They just want to brush it off and move on.
But you must call the police! You also need to get the other driver’s insurance and driver’s license information. If you can do it safely, you also need pictures of both cars. When doing this, however, pull off the road as far as you can and never stand between the two cars or between traffic and the cars. Even if it’s cold and miserable, you must get out of way.
Finally, if the accident is bad enough, you should get pictures of skid marks on the road or anything else that shows that the other driver was traveling at higher rate than they say.
We’re all human; we’re all curious. But if you’re rubbernecking at an accident on the highway, you could actually end up causing an accident yourself. Stay safe and don’t be a distracted driver.
