Back to Dweste's original thought for a moment - When thinking of in-the-moment psychology, we should also give consideration to on-lookers. As a Scout leader, I teach the kids "Safety First." You can't help anyone by becoming a victim yourself. Unfortunately, theory and reality do not always mirror each other.

DH and I once stopped at the scene of an MVA on the side of a major highway. 3 vehicles were involved and 2 of the vehicles had rolled over. There were 10 victims, 6 adults and 4 kids, all injured, a couple of them severely. It was winter and we were in the middle of a snow storm. We weren't the first ones on the scene but we were the first active responders. About a dozen cars had pulled over, most people were out of their cars with several kids left buckled into their car seats.

DH and I immediately set to work triaging and treating the victims. As we worked, we advised everyone who wasn't helping to get back in their vehicles and leave if they weren't witnesses. Nobody moved, except 3 guys who ran over to one of the cars and started yanking on the door trying to open it, rocking the car pretty significantly as they did. I finally got through by yelling at them, and convinced them that they were hurting more than they were helping, and they stopped. I got two of them to hold pressure bandages on, and the other threw-up and went back to his car.

An off-duty nurse soon arrived, but nobody listened to her either. An off-duty, out of uniform cop had little success getting the gawkers to move either. Only when cruiser arrived and that officer told everyone to get back into their cars and leave if they weren't witnesses, did they finally leave the side of the road.

There must have been 20 people standing on the side of the icy, low-visability bend in the highway, WHERE A SERIOUS ACCIDENT HAD JUST HAPPENED BECAUSE OF ON-GOING CONDITIONS, giving no consideration to their own safety, or the safety of the kids that were left buckled in the targets, I mean, cars on the side of the ACCIDENT SCENE. It took a uniformed officer with lights flashing to get them to snap out of it.