re: #107 dangerman

i repeat, i have never seen a police department give a damn about alleviating a traffic backup quickly

Quite true. I’ve seen some of the damnedest traffic snarls caused by nothing but rubber-neck goobers slowing down to gawk at a minor accident, usually with police and EMS present. it wasn’t always so. In the dim mists of time (ca. 1970) police would station one cruiser at an accident scene specifically to run down and ticket gawkers who obstructed traffic. I haven’t seen that done in many years.