这句是站在现在的角度看，事故发生在之前，而现在周围有好多人围观。

A traffic accident happened in a small town, the place was crowded by many people.

youdao

九月份的地震，发生在之前不为人知的断层带上，已经让当地人焦虑不安。

September's quake, along a previously unknown fault line, had unnerved locals.

youdao

亚洲大多数国家正在欢度农历新年，且所有重大波动发生在之前的纽约时段，今天亚洲时段波动相当平静。

With most of Asia celebrating the Lunar New year and all the major moves taking place earlier in the New York session, today crawled by with a minimum of action.

youdao

Setting yourself up before the fact so that you can win an argument after the fact, so that you didn't--you just got unlucky.

在事实发生之前先给自己预设一下结局,你就能在事实发生之后赢得一场争论，所以你并不是不能做到-，只是不走运而已。

耶鲁公开课 - 金融市场课程节选

They're going to be before you guys were born, but let me mention them anyway.

它们发生在你们出生之前,不过我们还是提一下

耶鲁公开课 - 博弈论课程节选

So it's got to have happened before this life.

所以这些应该在这辈子之前发生的

耶鲁公开课 - 死亡课程节选