How many cops?

…does is take to handle a fender bender? In Kanawha County, apparently, it’s always one more.

Rear-ender at the Greenbrier Street on-ramp to I-64 westbound. Car hits van in rear, everybody out of their cars, nobody hurt, cars are off the road and traffic moving smoothly. Three Charleston city police cruisers on the scene, officers standing around doing a lot of nothing.

Fender bender at the off ramp of I-64 westbound at Montrose Drive. Everybody off the road, traffic moving smoothly past the accident, cop already on the scene with lights flashing. A South Charleston cruiser with two officers stops at the intersection while heading up the hill (southbound, this is on the other side of the street from the accident, and with the light green) to “observe.” They block the lane through the rest of the green, a red, and another green, and finally turn on their lights as traffic decides to go around them. What they were going to do, I don’t know, because they just sat their unnecessarily blocking the left lane of Montrose.

OTOH, you can have a monster traffic tie up with a dozen cops on the scene and two lanes blocked, and nobody will take it upon themselves to direct traffic around the mess. Kudos to any cop willing to direct traffic, because here is a guy will to do something obvious to improve the situation.