The Gawkers

As though they've never seen an accident before.

Traffic was unusually heavy for a Wednesday afternoon. The flow was inching along, which indicated an accident ahead.

Franklin checked his traffic app for an alternative route. Everyone else had the same idea because all roads within a mile of the accident were red on the app, and the red lines were growing.

 “Accident SB near Exit 23” the roadside marquee displayed.

Ok, only two miles of this, Franklin thought. Won’t be long.

But he was wrong.

At one point, the traffic had stopped completely and he hadn’t moved for ten minutes. Then it flowed again.

The heavy metal rock radio station was stressing him more, so he shut it off.

Must be pretty bad.

A full hour later, he drove by the accident, which was on the other side of the road.

The traffic news people all called it gawker’s or gaper’s delay. Everyone is gawking or gaping to see the accident and how bad it is.

The fire departments at this accident shielded most of the accident because four cars were involved. At least three ambulances were on the scene, and two of the cars were crunched against the concrete barrier between highway directions.

As a habitual gawker himself, Franklin came to a complete stop because he thought he saw a body on the road.

The 4x4 pickup that plowed right into his rear bumper never saw what Franklin saw.

Hopefully, the traffic delay he just caused wouldn’t be as great as the one he was just in. 

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