[Mad Maxine]

You know what grinds my gears?
You are driving along on the highway, things are going nice and traffic is moving as it should, then all of a sudden, everyone is braking, cars are slowing down all over the place, and you think the worst has happened somewhere up ahead. You then sit in crawling or stop start traffic for 20 minutes, watching the traffic pile up behind you as far as the eye can see, and fume quietly to yourself, particularly if you drive an older vehicle with only windows for air conditioning (don't get me wrong, I love my '62 Fairlane, but it's a tad uncomfortable in high summer when you are stopped in the blazing sun).

Eventually, the traffic crawls forward and then suddenly, everyone speeds up and takes off! There is no sign of an accident, and then you realise some fackwit up approximately 200 cars ahead has slowed down to gawk at
a) some poor buggerchange a tyre
b) some girl standing next to her car yakking on a mobile phone
c) a speed camera vehicle on the side of the road
d) a vehicle that has broken down being loaded onto a tilt tray (not an accident)

There is absolutely NO REASON for them to slow down one bloody bit as long as the vehicle/person is off the road and the usual caution about driving past people etc at 100km/hr, but there's always someone who has to practically come to a standstill to have a good rubberneck, and this causes a chain reaction of people slamming on the brakes to do the same thing, or wondering why the cars in front are hitting the anchors and then so on down the line.

It drives me crazy-A-bonkers, and I hate these people with the heat of a thousand blazing hot suns about to go supernova.

If your attention span is that short, and you have absolutely no ability to just maintain your highway speed, get off the highways. Your stupidity causes a massive chain reaction for kilometers that affects hundreds of other drivers, but you are blind and blissfully unaware of the mess you leave behind.

And this to the nth degree more for those vultures who feel the need to stop and stare at a car accident that could have resulted in injury or death. Just don't. If the police and emergency services are already there, unless you are an off-duty trauma specialist, keep bloody going, and have some common decency.

Rant over. I think I need an aspirin now. Grrrrr!

MM