Rubbernecking
Calgary drivers posses a bit of a problem, that stems from a mix of consideration and curiosity. The Deerfoot, which for some reason is labeled as a 'trail', twists drivers together so that accidents are pretty much a daily occurrence. If the average is below one a day, the first snowfall of the year will bring the average back up to par. The problem is not the three lanes of asphalt, but all the onlookers after the fact.
Leaving work after six, to ensure that I missed the bulk of the rush hour, I was halted after merging onto the Deerfoot from Glenmore. After crawling a distance, I realized that the accident was already pulled off the road. A Fire truck, a 350Z and some flavour of mini-van were well off to the shoulder of the road, and from my elevated position on the ramp, I could see the traffic was unhindered as passed by the scene. Consideration usually leads the lane closest to the accident down to the 60km/h level. This time however, all three lanes were trapped in a 20km/h crawl past the flashing red lights. The problem was evident as soon as I reached the breaking point. Everyone wanted to see what was on the other side of the Fire truck, myself included. As soon as that curiosity was solved, we could get back to normal driving
