Dubai: Building public awareness on how rubbernecking creates traffic jams is the only way to curb such behaviour, a senior police official said, since traffic fines cannot be issued for the act.
Rubbernecking means craning one’s neck in order to get a better view of something. In traffic terms, it refers to drivers slowing down or stopping in the middle of the road to look at a crash or something of interest.
Major General Mohammad Saif Al Zafein, Assistant to Dubai Police Chief for Operations’ Affairs told Gulf News that a crash, vehicle breakdown or a policeman attending to a minor accident can disrupt the flow of traffic due to rubbernecking. He observed that there is lack of awareness among drivers about road etiquette.
“People are naturally curious, but police have on many occasions tried to alert them about the dangers of rubbernecking. Only educating drivers will help,” he said.
Residents will have observed that traffic movement tends to slow down, sometimes in both directions, when there is an accident on the road as people tend to slow down to get a better view.
“We cannot issue traffic fines for rubbernecking,” Maj Gen Al Zafein said.
Rubbernecking may reduce the capacity of a road by roughly 50 per cent in both directions, Maj Gen Al Zafein said, even though the accident itself or police have not blocked multiple lanes.
“One vehicle slowing down is all it takes to creates a kind of shockwave that motorists following drive into,” Maj Gen Al Zafein said. “Vehicles begin to pick up speed at the exact spot of the accident.”
A quick look at an accident scene may not seem like much, but it actually takes about five seconds of the driver’s concentration, Maj Gen Al Zafein said. Give five seconds to each following motorist and you have a traffic jam.
“If all motorists could agree not to be distracted, there would be no traffic jams,” he said.
Rubbernecking can have serious consequences. On November 18 last year, a policeman was killed when he was struck by a woman driver near Arabian Ranches on Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Road.
Sergeant Abd Mohammad Ali Al Tharid was struck by a car driven by a Lebanese woman as he was looking into a minor accident involving two cars on the busy stretch of road.
“The woman driver was looking at the accident scene and didn’t see the officer,”Maj Gen Al Zafein said.
Maj Gen Al Zafein noted that Asian motorists are most guilty of rubbernecking.
He urged drivers involved in a crash to move their cars to the nearest police station and obtain a police report. “Drivers standing on the road arguing also contributes to rubbernecking,” he said.
Bassma Al Jandaly is the Community and Crime Correspondent
