Like a lot of people, Dave Statter got a bit bored when the pandemic hit and he was pretty much confined to his home. But unlike most of us, Statter lives high atop a Crystal City building overlooking I-395. Why binge Netflix when just outside the window is real-life drama, pathos, tragedy and comedy, all captured by the five video cameras Statter has trained on the traffic below?

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       For example, there is a blue SUV merging onto I-395 South from Boundary Channel Drive, then clumsily working its way across four lanes of traffic — stopping completely at one point as cars speed around it — before exiting onto Route 1 South. A moment later, a driver in a dark sedan does the same thing, scattering motorists in his wake.

       As Statter tweeted to his 32,000 Twitter followers: “Watch this: A pair of stupid, selfish, & dangerous drivers to start Sunday morning.”

       Watch this: A pair of stupid, selfish, & dangerous drivers to start Sunday morning. And they likely weren't following each other! One came from Boundary Channel & the other from the 14th St. Bridge. @WTOPtraffic @ARLnowDOTcom @VaDOTNOVA #traffic #vatraffic #395cam #statcam pic.twitter.com/IMYoHOIE1p

       — Dave Statter (@STATter911) March 20, 2022

       There is a tour bus barreling across four lanes in the space of about 100 feet — nearly sideswiping a car — then backing up on the shoulder to make the Route 1 exit.

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       Statter posts close calls like these on his Twitter page, @STATter911. He’s never short of content.

       You may know Statter, 66, from WUSA, where he was a reporter for 25 years, retiring in 2010. Before that, he worked for WTOP radio, where his wife, Hillary Howard, is the afternoon anchor.

       He cut his traffic teeth with the great Bob Marbourg and has long been fascinated by traffic and the often horrifying ways we interact with it. From his glass aerie, Statter surveys the roads below: Zeus without a lightning bolt but with social media.

       Not that he’s surveying it all the time. Statter says he’s not that obsessed, even if some friends have compared him to Jimmy Stewart in “Rear Window.” When he sees a backup, he’ll rewind the video to see what caused it, ditto if VDOT reports a crash from overnight. If Statter notices something from the corner of his well-trained eye as he’s working at his computer, he’ll investigate.

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       Usually the cause is driver error, someone so desperate or clueless that they think nothing of careering across four lanes of traffic or coming to a complete stop as they consider their options.

       Said Statter: “I don’t understand that thought process: ‘I’m going to hold everybody up and create a terrible hazard here until I figure out where I’m going.’”

       He added: “The great thing about GPS is it’s going to recalculate. Don’t stop in the middle of 395. There’s always a next exit.”

       Since retiring from the news biz, Statter has focused on a lifelong passion: fire and EMS. His statter911.com website is aimed at first responders. He posts what he calls “pre-arrival” videos: shots of burning buildings before the firetrucks have pulled up.

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       It’s useful for training, he said. Firefighters can scrutinize the videos and think about how they would have approached the blaze, where they would park apparatus and how they would run the hose lines.

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       Statter’s five cameras catch more than idiot drivers. Not long ago one recorded a bald eagle flying past, a fish in its talons. He has an impressive vantage on dramatic weather moving through the area. He had footage of the “People’s Convoy” being swarmed by police on the Case Bridge.

       (1) New: Unless you were on the Case Bridge you likely didn't get a good look at the very large @DCPoliceDept response Wednesday to #TruckersConvoy2022 stopped on the SW Freeway. The video in the next tweet shows police swarming the bridge. (more) @esilverman11 pic.twitter.com/80iWbR7Kdy

       — Dave Statter (@STATter911) March 18, 2022

       And, he said, “I’ve caught probably a dozen to 20 different police chases.”

       But it’s the boneheaded traffic moves that provide the most material.

       “It’s not to get any specific person in trouble,” Statter said. “You can’t see license tags. The idea is to point out that this is really dangerous. It’s to educate the public or road engineers or others, to say, ‘What can we do to improve this?’”

       Watch this: Sometimes you get away with crossing 4 lanes of I-395 to get to the exit on the other side. Sometimes you don't. This was at 3:30 pm. @WTOPtraffic @ARLnowDOTcom @DildineWTOP @JWPascale @VaDOTNOVA #traffic #vatraffic #395cam #STATcam pic.twitter.com/ea65gT7OOk

       — Dave Statter (@STATter911) March 11, 2022

       These videos are the proverbial train wreck. Some are the literal car crash. Why do we like watching them?

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       “I think it’s because we’re very close to doing that behavior ourselves,” Statter said. “Yeah, we’re surprised that others do it, but maybe not too surprised. It’s become very commonplace today for people to do selfish things that affect others.”

       Wrapped in our metal cocoons, anesthetized by the radio or a podcast, we lose our situational awareness, eager to get where we’re going, damn the consequences.

       “I’m sure I miss a lot,” said Statter. “I could show you a half-dozen people every hour doing stupid things to get to that exit. I save it for the more outrageous things.”