Opinion: Don't slam the art of onlooking

This house fire in Napier pulled a big crowd on Tuesday. Photo / NZME

Travelling through Awatoto after 6pm on Tuesday I happened upon some large and nasty flames devouring a house on Te Awa Ave.

I felt a little like Jim Carrey's character in the film Bruce Almighty, where the TV presenter's superpowers gifted him the serendipitous ability to stumble upon miraculous events to report on.

In the real world the rarity equates to dream timing for journalists.

Third car to stop at the blaze, and astounded by the heat, I was told by onlookers there was fortunately no one in the property.

So, wearing my reporter's hat I snapped a few fiery shots and filed a quick story for online.

As is always the case, vehicles stopped, neighbours near and far came out of their homes and the crowd size grew rapidly.

Dog walkers and scooter riders on Marine Parade joined the audience.

Let's not slam the art of onlooking, writes Mark Story. Photo / NZME

Soon the first related social media comments trickled in, many slamming the sheer number of "rubberneckers" on scene.

It got me thinking the one thing Kiwis love more than rubbernecking, is an epithet.

Rubberneckers, also known as excursionists, gawkers, voyeurs and snoops, are apparently those who look about or stare with exaggerated curiosity.

At their worst they hinder emergency services and exacerbate traffic delays.

But that's not why they're despised. They're despised because it's assumed no one has any business bearing witness to another's ill fortune.

It's rude.

But really? I'm not so sure. While for many the gazing goes not further than curiosity, it's a very human, natural curiosity.

Like trauma groupies watching dysfunction play out on US talkback shows, schadenfreude does play a part.

Yet I reckon in emergencies it's largely a healthy phenomenon.

In times of distress there's comfort in the knowledge of many curious - and concerned -hands nearby.

The alternative? Look the other way? Keep driving? Void of empathy, that's a scary sentiment.

My sometimes jaw-dropping time in Shanghai sadly underlined just how inhumane disinterest at trauma scenes can be.

So let's cut the rubbernecker some slack. And let's change the epithet while we're at it.