Interstate 485 drivers caused a traffic jam while gawking at and videotaping an overturned car, emergency responders said in a lengthy rebuke on Twitter Saturday night.
“Please put your phones down and keep your eyes on the road,” Matthews Fire & EMS tweeted earlier in the day with two photos from the wreck scene, including one of an overturned car.
Three people had to be extracted from the wreck and were taken to hospitals, according to Matthews Fire & EMS.
The wreck just before 11 a.m. closed I-485 Inner Loop between John Street and Providence Road, according to another Fire and EMS tweet.
On Facebook, emergency responders said their response efforts “were further hampered by motorists who did not yield to emergency vehicles, motorists who attempted to circumnavigate traffic by using the emergency/breakdown lanes and several motorists who abandoned their vehicles to talk to other drivers or to get a better look at the accident.”