Slipping and sliding

I watched a video last night form Washington (State of) or was it Oregon?
Matters not …
The West Coast has been under an icy blast and the streets of this city were covered in ice … Covered. Not just an icy patch, but the whole street. The video showed cars sliding for an entire block, bouncing like balls off the bumpers in pinball, crashing into car after car after car… People were watching and yelling ….
And this happened more than once. Several cars were shown turning onto the street and simply losing control: slide … crash …. Spin …slide …. crash
So: I have two questions …
Why didn’t someone block the street(s) off so no one else would go down?
(And I wonder just how long it took until the police arrived)
And why didn’t those stupid people who were yelling get out of the street?
I was really waiting until one of them got hit by a car. I mean the cars were Out of Control and everyone knew it… but there were these people watching and yelling, and slipping and sliding.
Again I have no moral, but I would caution anyone driving or walking on an ice covered street: get to high ground as quickly as possible