We were in a queue of traffic because a man had been hit by a vehicle. He was lying on the road and had lost some of his clothes. The ambulance/ police arrived as we were sitting in our car.
I was horrified that so many people in front of our car got out of their car to have a good old look. We could just see the man from our car behind theirs ( he was being attended to by others) and it was clear and obvious that there had been an accident.
The number of rubber neckers who got out of cars/ opened doors/ leaned out of windows to get a better view was unbelievable. They didn't go to help, they were gawping.
The cars started to move and the one in front of us actually stopped alongside the man to have an even better look. WTF?
AIBU? Am I the only one to think that this is awful? The people driving in front of me seemed to think it was ok 
AIBU?
To detest gawpers.
MrsLouisTheroux · 30/08/2013 15:26
I can't stop thinking about this thread. It's really upset me.
I'm also reminded of the time my brother was following a friend up the motorway, passed an accident, 'gawked' and saw that it was her. He pulled in and was able to talk to her to keep her conscious as they cut her out of the wreck.
Please think about other people's situations before throwing such horrible insults around. I don't think I or my brother deserve them. 
I was definitely in shock. I had to go back to work and they had to put me in the staff room drinking sweet tea. The emergency control staff were lovely. I was trying to describe what happened and was just talking rubbish and they were so nice.
I really feel for people on here who have helped at emergencies, it's really hard, especially afterwards, when you have the adrenalin crash.
And then people want to name call.
I'm sure they don't remember me yellow. It was a horrible experience. There was a sign in the car window that I thought I first was a baby on board sign. It wasn't, and it turned out there wasn't a child in the car, thank god, but that was when I started really freaking out.
I was trying to get over the barriers and across the motorway to the car (in retrospect a pretty dim thing to do) but couldn't.
neunund.
My guess is that others didnt think they knew more first aid that your friend. Though I am surprised that none of them even went nearer and supported your friend through his ordeal.
Well actually, OP, it is similar. There was an accident, I tried to help, couldn't, but stayed 'gawking' anyway.
According to your delightful thread, that makes me detestable, loathsome and 'a sick bitch'.
So that's what the 'thanks' was for. Have a 
as well.
I've gawped.
It was late at night and I heard an almighty bang from directly outside my front door. A car had swerved suddenly to avoid a parked car and ended up on its side. It was horrific. All the neighbours ran out to help, the rest stood at their doors, some in tears... me included. It was a bad, bad crash. Luckily my neighbour's a paramedic and saved a life that night.
We were 'gawping', talking to eachother and gave our neighbour a big round of applause once the driver had been airlifted to hospital.
I can't imagine not gawping in that scenario, it was directly outside my front door... But to stop in traffic and crane your neck seems very crass. And to those who take photos!
Oh gawkers are a way of life to me, people stare at the strangest things. I stayed at a hotel recently and had a conversation with dd which went like this about a family who were having a good old stare at my ds who's severely Autistic, not only did they put me right off my sausages they made us all feel uncomfortable (( well three of us, ds s oblivious ))
DD>> what are you doing mum ??
ME>> > I'm watching those people THERE > and i'm wondering if they're from a different planet dd since they don't seem to have come across the likes of your brother before.
GAWKERS >> 
carry on gormlessly gawking.
I may have been a wee bit out of order but when youre getting stared at across the breakfast table, not just by 2 kids but buy their thick twat of a mother too for the major crime of being in public with someone who is just a bit different from everyone else it gets annoying. I'm not over sensitive at all, and 99% of the time don't even notice. I was more annoyed because he was being very well behaved, just very proud of himself and letting me know in his noisy, clumsy, galumphing way he'd managed to use the toaster.
His disability is obvious, he's a 5ft 6 12 year old yet verbally he's a toddler, why people feel the need to stare open mouthed at times is beyond me.
They did it on the 2nd day too, I went over in the end, tapped the mother on the shoulder and asked if her dds maybe attended the same SN school as my boy because they kept looking over, and did they know us from somewhere ?? She did at least have the grace to look shamefaced and hiss at her dds after that but should have known better.
Will say again,I don't have a chip on my shoulder at all, my view is people will look etc but that slack jawed gawking really pissed me off !!
I live near the town where a young pregnant mum killed her three small children and then threw herself off a multi-storey car park. I happened to drive through a few days after it happened and the main road takes you back through the town past the car park and then right past her house. The huge mound of flowers and teddy bears and clouds of balloons was hard to avoid but I felt awful just seeing it. I didn't want to look but it was right in front of me, and to think what it represented, well it made me cry in the car.
It's human nature to look and see what's happened. That's why we have newspapers and news programmes to tell us what's happened. It's not nice to treat it like some form of entertainment though.
To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.