Cops flashing on the highway shoulder - invitation for disaster?

Perhaps you've seen those police video shows on TV. You know, the ones where the cops chase the bad guys at high speed and it always ends in either a crash or the suspects bailing out and running. Sometimes both.

Another favorite category of videos in these shows features police officers with vehicles stopped on the side of the road, and darn it all if other drivers aren't attracted to these traffic stops like moths to flames, causing the officer to have to jump out of the way--if he's lucky, that is. If he's not lucky he gets hit full on by a car speeding right into him. And the passengers of the stopped car get to become victims as well of a driver who for some unfathomable reason thought that a police car stopped by the side of the road was an invitation to hit it like in some depraved video game.

Then there are the occassional videos featured on these shows where rubbernecking drivers distracted by something--be it a traffic stop, construction, an accident, a suicide jumper, or whatever else may interesting at the moment--get into further accidents themselves. On a freeway this can lead to massive chain reaction crashes as people are looking at the shoulder while not noticing the car stopped dead in front of them that has just rear ended another car.

Having read that, take a look at the video and tell me what you see.

Did you notice the men working near the sign on the left side of the road? My guess is that you did not, because you probably saw all the vehicles lined up on the right shoulder with all their flashing lights and you probably looked over at them. If one of these men had been too close to the road or trying to cross it, there is a pretty good chance that many drivers would not have seen him at all on the left shoulder because they were looking at the light show on the right shoulder.

Now suppose there had been a large object of some sort in the middle of the highway in between these two potential distractions. How many drivers would have seen that?

My point is that it is a very wise idea as a talented driver to always consciously survey the entire scene whenever there is a distraction of any kind to see if there is something you should be seeing but are not.

Then once you've thoroughly scanned your surroundings, most importantly the path your vehicle is going to take, go ahead and take a little peek at that accident. Us humans are as curious as cats, after all. It's just that I'd rather have my body and property intact first and be curious second.