Memo To Traffic Reporters

Automobile accidents are inanimate objects. They do not have personality nor force of will.

This would seem rather obvious, but I feel the need to mention it since more and more traffic reporters I hear on the radio are adopting the odd tendency to personify car accidents.

Not a radio traffic report goes by anymore where I don't hear the guy say "There's an accident trying to clear on the ramp to I-95..." or "there's an accident working at the intersection of Commercial...."

Accidents don't clear, and they don't work. They don't do anything. Sure, perhaps one could say an accident is "causing a delay" or "tying things up." But an accident can't "clear" anything, and it certainly can't "work" anything.

Cops "clear" and "work" accidents. To put it in NRA language, cars don't clear accidents; people clear accidents. The accidents themselves would just sit there forever if left on their own.

Let's straighten this out, folks. Thank you for your prompt attention.