‘Look, Honey, a Crash’ From Nosy Drivers Clogs Southbound Lanes Too

Everyone who was late Tuesday because they were driving south on Interstate 5 can blame it on curiosity.

When authorities Tuesday morning had to close off northbound I-5 because of a truck accident, traffic was jammed for about 5 miles, back to Interstate 805.

The accident didn’t touch the opposing lanes, and no lanes were closed on southbound I-5. Theoretically, motorists should have been moving at a normal speed, California Highway Patrol Officer Joe Roque said.

Instead, Roque said, rubberneckers backed up traffic on southbound I-5 all the way to Encinitas Boulevard, about eight miles.

“There was no reason for that traffic to be backed up,” said Roque, who got caught in it himself on the way to work Tuesday afternoon. “It was fire engines. People were slowing down to look at fire engines.”

Why, Roque said, he didn’t know. “People have seen fire engines before.”

Every time there is an accident, drivers will inevitably slow down to gawk at the scene, said Phil Konstantin, a CHP spokesman.

“We have people stopping to see someone getting a speeding ticket, much less than for an accident,” Konstantin said. “Human nature being what it is, they will look to see what it was that was holding them up.”

Nothing can really be done about spectator slowing, Konstantin said. “We realize it exists, but it doesn’t help the situation any.”

Frequently, rubbernecking will also cause minor accidents because drivers will rear-end someone when they didn’t notice the sea of red taillights in front of them, Konstantin said.

Accidents are more popular to look at than construction work, but the state Department of Transportation reports that some of its construction workers have been injured or killed because of curious, careless motorists.

“I think we’re curious animals, we want to see anything that goes on around us,” said Kyle Nelson, a Caltrans spokesman.

To deter rubberneckers, Caltrans construction crews now put up “gawk screens”--sheets of plywood that shield their work from curious drivers, Nelson said.

In Tuesday’s accident on I-5, the overturned gasoline tanker wasn’t even fully visible from the road, Roque said. The 18-wheel truck had overturned and landed on its roof down a 20-foot embankment that partly hid it from view, he said.

“You would really have to be craning your neck outside your window and raising your sunroof to see this,” Roque said.

CHP Officer John Marinez, who was at the scene of the accident, said there were three fender-bender accidents on southbound I-5, “and a lot of near-misses too--you can hear the squealing of brakes and that familiar smell of burning rubber.”