If this is indeed completely hypothetical ten shouldn't it be in the discussion forum? If it's not relevant to Continental Airlines in particular than it shouldn't be posted here.
The part of your story about the construction and the accident actually did happen to me though. I was going to Newark airport via the NJ Turnpike. There was bridge construction just north of the airport exit which had traffic down to one lane AND there was an accident obviously the result of an unfriendly merge. I could see the airport in the near distance and planes on approach were flying over us but I knew I would either be cutting it really close or miss my flight. I already had my boarding pass and wasn't checking a bag so I at least knew I wouldn't miss the check-in cutoff but as is usually the case (my dumb luck I guess) the departure gate was at the far end of the concourse. I'm sure folks in Newark got a good laugh that day for after going through screening I took off running with my shoes untied and my belt looped around my neck like a necktie. As I ran my pants were slowly but surely falling down and at one point I almost lost them!
Out of breath, sweating (summertime and the AC in terminal C is horrible) and disheveled I spotted the gate with many people still queued to have their boarding passes scanned. Even though there was no adjustment to the official departure time the boarding was slightly delayed. My only lucky break of the day. As I stood by the galley waiting to take my seat the FA handed me a glass of water. "You look like you need this" she said and she was right!
Now had I arrived at the gate and all had boarded and the agent was printing the manifest would I have begged to get on? You bet! If told no would I have been argumentative..."What do you mean? The plane is still there! YOU'RE about to go down there with your paperwork, why can't I go with you!?" Absolutely not! One has to realize that flat tires, traffic jams, or one's inability to get on the road in a timely manner isn't the airline's fault and especially not the fault of the gate agent. He or she is just doing their job which is to get the aircraft off the gate on time or as close to on time as possible.
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