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My Issue With Rubbernecking
Mar 2, 2008

Most of us get frustrated whenever drivers slow down to gawk at an accident or someone getting a ticket (or a pretty lady holding up a sign for something). There have been explanations about why people do it:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/390267/rubbernecks_exposed_why_people_gawk.html

I used to love watching horror films when I was younger. I'd never flinch at any gory scenes, but eventually, the slasher-type gore-fests became rather mundane and monotonous, so now I prefer more suspense-based horror movies. When Faces Of Death came out, however, I was appalled and insulted. I refused to watch it. It was one thing to watch dramatized make-believe stuff, but someone real who was loved and had parents and people grieving was having their final moments exploited as entertainment fodder, and I wasn't about to let someone profit from me with something like that. Likewise, something about rubbernecking somehow to me is an affront to the unfortunate people's dignity.

Documentaries are a different matter. I will always watch those, about things like the Holocaust, unethical and animal abuses. It is very painful for me to watch those, but it is important to know what really happens so that people will always remember what can happen and do what they can to prevent it from happening again.

My main concern with the type of voyeurism involved in an activity such as rubbernecking is the potential for apathy. Some things you shouldn't get used to, or you might not be affected enough to give a damn and do something about when it really matters. Like when one poor man was getting beaten half to death and begged for help and only 1 man came to his aid in a crowd of onlookers. I don't want us to become barbarians again, a throw-back to when "civilized" Rome watched gladiators kill each other for sport and watched Christians get eaten alive by hungry lions.

Besides, your risk of getting into an accident greatly increases when you are distracted while driving, that includes rubbernecking:

http://www.onlinelawyersource.com/personal_injury/car/statistics.html

"Car accident statistics indicate 98 percent of reported accidents involve a single distracted driver. Rubbernecking was the highest percentage of single distractions, followed by driver fatigue, looking at scenery or landmarks, passenger or child distractions, adjusting the radio or other music form, and cell phone use."

Someone actually invented a product that is supposed to help prevent it:

http://www.rubberneckless.com/index.htm

In any event, show some class, stop ogling, and keep your eyes toward the direction in which you are traveling, OK?? Here, you can even pledge not to rubberneck, at this website:

http://www.stoprubbernecking.org/index.html

Here is a story about rubbernecking that was local to Florida that I noted on C2NN:

http://www.care2.com/news/member/155416174/657830
Visibility: Everyone
Posted: Sunday March 2, 2008, 5:31 pm
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Malee Holland
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female, age 40, married, 1 child
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