# Witness a traffic accident - pull over or continue?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witness-a-traffic-accident-pull-over-or-continue/142356>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 12, 2002, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witness-a-traffic-accident-pull-over-or-continue/142356 "2002-12-12T23:37:25Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![happyheathen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5e925/32.png) [@happyheathen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/happyheathen)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witness-a-traffic-accident-pull-over-or-continue/142356/21 "2002-12-15T07:00:21Z")

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If I can be of help, I stop - i.e. anytime I am a witness[sup]\*[/sup], or am the first on the scene.  
If I did not see it happen, and others are already on-scene, I do not, unless I think I can add to the effort.

I thought this was a reasonable standard of behaviour. _shrug_

- 
  - one exception - there is a very poorly-designed stretch of road wherein 5 lanes are squeezed into 3, and then 4 more lanes are funneled into the #3 lane. Anyone who has EVER driven that road knows to stay out of #3. Consequently, #3 usually has a vacant stretch of 50-60 yards just before the merge lanes enter traffic. I saw one idiot who, upon seeing vacant pavement, ducks into #3 and accelerates - right into the rear of a heavy truck stopped in traffic. I’m hoping that was a full-blown Darwin.

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**Author:** ![NardoPolo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecae2f/32.png) [@NardoPolo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NardoPolo)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witness-a-traffic-accident-pull-over-or-continue/142356/22 "2002-12-15T13:51:00Z")

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**Cranky** , let me note that I’ve given my name twice as a witness, and both times the insurance company called me back. Both were on rear-end collisions that seemed to me to be cut-and-dry. Especially from the nature of the questions in the more recent one, I suspect that one driver changed the story substantially. =/

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**Author:** ![handy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b5a626/32.png) [@handy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handy)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witness-a-traffic-accident-pull-over-or-continue/142356/23 "2002-12-15T15:46:31Z")

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Note: Get a cheap camera & keep it in the glove compartment so you can take photos.

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**Author:** ![Global\_Citizen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/46a35a/32.png) [@Global\_Citizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Global_Citizen)\
**Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/witness-a-traffic-accident-pull-over-or-continue/142356/24 "2002-12-15T16:04:33Z")

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More than five years ago I was involved in a traffic accident. My car wasn’t even four months old at the time. I clearly had the right of way and it was 100% the other person’s fault (it was an elderly man who “thought” he had enough time to make a left hand turn when I was going straight through the intersection on a green light).

Moments after it happened two women in a mini-van pulled up and one of them gave me a piece of paper with her name and number, saying she had seen everything and that she would be a witness for me in any police investigation.

I will never forget that act of kindness.

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