Our View: Slow it down during incidents

Earlier this month, I was one of the many area residents who had the minor inconvenience of waiting in traffic for an hour because of a semi-rollover on Interstate 90 between Logan and Manhattan.

While sitting in traffic was not how I envisioned spending my Friday afternoon, it happened, and I dealt with it. Accidents happen, and this one was tricky, with over 70 cattle being hauled in the semi.

While our carload of three waited patiently for the traffic to move, I was horrified by what I witnessed from other people traveling in the westbound lane of the Interstate. People were driving around each other, around emergency personnel, and using the median as a driving lane to try and get past people or illegally turn around. It was chaos.

At the time, I wasn’t sure if it was a semi-rollover or the Zombie apocalypse because people were acting like a bunch of inpatient idiots.

We eventually made it where we wanted to go and lost an hour -- one hour in a 24-hour day. I’m surprised we survived without trying to pass everyone in front of us.

When I got home, I read a post from a firefighter who was helping direct traffic, and he mentioned that people were going around the stop sign he was holding. This is ridiculous that emergency providers have to deal with this type of stuff.

Unfortunately, this type of behavior is nothing new, and it often happens after an incident during the winter months when people go speeding by or do not switch lanes. I often hear it is out-of-state people doing this, but I saw plenty of Montana license plates the other day.

Those responding to accidents would like to return to their family. Please do not ignore their stop signs, move lanes around an accident, and slow down.

Driving in the winter is rough enough, don’t make things even more difficult.