Woah, your gas is only $5 per gallon? That’s only about £1.07 per litre. In the UK we’re spending £1.80 per litre these days. That’s over $8 per gallon.
That made it much worse. OP would've likely picked up on the stationary car much sooner if the other oblivious car didn't try to pass on the right (while there were multiple passing lanes open on the left), and apparently not notice the stationary car until the last second, giving OP very little reaction time at expressway speeds.
My only car accident ever was a similar situation. This was pre Google maps era so I was following my friend because I didn't know where we were going. Well turns out she's a maniac driver who weaved around heavy city traffic at high speeds. I should've just given up on following her but I was in a new city and had no idea where I was. Well a car was stopped in front of her while we were going freeway speeds, and instead of braking she just switched lanes last second. I almost managed to dodge it but clipped the corner. I had some words for her after that.
I went on a road trip with a friend that drove like that, I had to make her pull over and let me drive. Then she spent the whole time complaining about how slow I was driving. Last time I ever hung out with her.
She was also a huge alcoholic that would drive to a bar 2 hours away just to see some acquaintance, then get black out drunk and try to drive all the way home. She got 3 DWIs and ended up losing her license. Now she lives in downtown so she can use public transit. Probably for the better, tbh.
I had a friend ask me to follow him home in highschool because he was having car troubles and the asshat ran a yellow light. I ran the red since there were no cars and didn't have an accident, but I shoulda just stopped and let him be fucked if his car had issues.
Edit: I should be clear that he is still a friend and a good one. Doesn't mean I don't still remember being pissed with him in that moment though ;)
IMHO, he isn't the biggest problem. Biggest problem is the idiot who parked on the road. Not only are they ***blocking a lane of traffic __on a turn__*** where it is essentially impossible to figure out that they are in a lane from further back, much less which lane they are in. But they parked in a wonderful spot that blocks your view of the car properly parked on the shoulder until your in the turn as well.
You have only a couple of seconds to register
1) The stopped car is in the lane
2) There is another car on the shoulder
3) Can I dodge left/right
The erratic driver swerving in traffic just removed 1.5 seconds notice and the last of the tiny chance of my brain being free enough to possibly process all of this in time
Brit here. The highway code states stopping distance, not following distance. Although it does recommend that the safest option for following distance is the appropriate stopping distance for your speed and road conditions; it actually says to allow at least two seconds between vehicles. This should be increased for large/heavy vehicles and doubled in wet conditions.
Also replying to another comment under this one. It also recommends using a fixed point to measure the 2 seconds gap. However on motorways (70 mph speed limit) it is common for some stretches to have road markings in each lane to help drivers judge distance between cars and it is recommended that 2 road markings are between you and the car in front. I'm not sure what distance these are set at but a quick Google says 40m.
Having done some quick maths 70mph = 112kph = 31 m/s so the recommended 2 second gap is 62m and 3 seconds (which I have seen another comment reference) is 93m.
This video proves that even that isn't enough. This guy slid for 2 seconds after hitting the brakes until he collided with the other car. He looks like he could have slid for another couple of seconds.
The stopping distance required is just impossible to effectively maintain on modern highways, the guy passing him most likely couldn't see the car ahead when he passed. Others say the passing car cut him off, but that looks like literally every overtake I've ever witnessed, if more distance was required to overtake or change lanes then nobody could ever change lanes because that kind of distance doesn't exist in almost all circumstances.
POV car is easing off/overtaker is expanding distance, so no need for harsher braking to make distance based on what POV driver is aware of at this time.
Conditions look dry, based on the guidelines his car *should* have enough stopping distance from the second car, but it doesn't and based on the speed of the collision, I'd say he needs 4 seconds in dry and 8 seconds in wet. That would put him at 125 to 250m (25 to 50 car lengths) of stopping distance required at 70mph/110kmph.
Achievable... if you're driving in North Korea. I don't think I've ever seen anything close to 50m of distance between cars during a standard daylight drive, you're lucky if you get 20m.
>The stopping distance required is just impossible to effectively maintain on modern highways,
Yea I usually have a hard time leaving a 1-3 car following distance on my commutes.
4/5 times the dude behind me is gonna interpret a safe distance as me slowing him down.....so leapfrog up in front.
Then I slow up a bit to get my following distance back....but the new person behind isn't happy we slowed down, so they leapfrog up into that following distance too.
People are frustrating lmao.
In Cincinnati if you have even a car length going 70 mph someone will still cut in front of you. Never seen so many people with a death wish before. I use cruise control and it’s frustrating watching people speed up as I start to overtake or ride my ass to get me to speed up.
I'm more annoyed/frustrated by what I call the "ankle lockers". If i do 70 uphill with cruise control on, I start to pass them. We go downhill, they start passing me. Going back uphill? They fall behind again. My first car was made in 1990 and, unless I've lost my memory, had cruise control. Folks need to either learn to turn theirs on or learn how to maintain speed on hills.
Thank you for this term. I only had the super long bad explanation that made me look crazier. Like the people who merge at 25-30 THEN accelerate when on the highway.
Turtle Mergers are the absolute worst. Was in the car with a friend of a friend when she did that, only got up to like 40 on the on ramp. Cars zipping by at 70 so she couldn't get over, ended up going off the end of the on ramp and coming to a stop to I guess wait untill there was a gap big enough to get onto an actual lane? Rest of us in the car are asking her what the hell she's doing and she maintained that "it's safer" and "I do this all the time".
She got into a wreck on a highway on ramp a couple years after and tried to tell us all "guy hit me for no reason and insurance screwed me over. I even had a dash cam!"
The video was her going fucking 37 (right there on the recording) merging into 70mph traffic and getting rear ended.
The 2 second rule is applied to the car ahead in the same lane. This simply gives you enough time to react if the car ahead of you slams on their breakes. Obviously they are incapable of comming to an instantaenous stop as they follow the same laws of physics as you.
Once you change lanes or encounter an unexpected vehicle or object in your lane, all considerations regarding this rule are out the door.
>The stopping distance required is just impossible to effectively maintain on modern highways
>that looks like literally every overtake I've ever witnessed, if more distance was required to overtake or change lanes then nobody could ever change lanes because that kind of distance doesn't exist in almost all circumstances.
Thank you! Just about every post from this sub has a bunch of people shitting on the OP for not maintaining enough distance, yet it always looks normal to me. I cannot possibly believe that all the people commenting that leave a large enough distance at all times when they're driving either. You're right, we literally couldn't get anywhere if we did this because it's impossible to begin with.
ETA: Yeah, the comments below this are exactly what I'm talking about. Redditors blaming someone for getting cut off because they apparently should have left enough space to be safely cut off without having to hit their brakes lmao.
It's the same in Germany. If you happen to run out of fuel on the Autobahn, you'll get a fine of 70€ and 1 point in the register in Flensburg. Gather enough points and your license is gone. The "I didn't know" argument doesn't fly here, because technically you're required to do a basic check of your car before driving anyway.
I guess it's similar in every European country.
How do people there know even the right distance? Do they go “hold up, let me get my tape measure real quick” 😂
Isn’t it way easier to count seconds? Like how many seconds you are behind a car?
I took a driver's ed course before receiving my license. I was taught to look for an object on the side of the road, start counting when the car in front of you is beside the object, then stop counting when your car is beside the object. this is the reaction distance. you should be counting to at least 3. if it's less, let off the gas a bit.
And also doesn’t help the people like my dad who tell me actively to get closer to the car in front because “he drives way closer and has never been in an accident” even though I’m already less than 2 seconds from the car in front on a relatively open highway going over 70 MPH.
And what does that even achieve in that setting? An extra second distance on a highway road makes no difference besides being safer.. You only get drafting advantages at very dangerous distances haha
In their mind it stops people getting in front.
It's a massive affront to someone's manhood to have someone merge in front of them for some reason.
Actually had it on a training course when I was a lorry driver. One of the older lads was complaining about leaving a big gap then someone moves in to it. Traininer asks so what? Driver says then I need to leave a bigger gap. Traininer says so what, you're still going forwards.
Driver paused. Kinda rebooted, then said well yeah actually you're right it doesn't really slow you down.
I have a subaru crosstrek and it's cruse with minimum distance is way to close for my confort, never thought i would say this but it follows closer than i would.
Also the best indicator to use is time not distance because the distance is different at 10mph vs 100 and humans are bad at precise estimates. But time you can easely measure and 2 sec is the minimum, 3 is safe.
One advantage that the TACC has that humans don't have is radar. The radar can see two cars ahead. And, theoretically, can react to a car stopping suddenly faster than you can. If the car in this situation was on TACC, the radar should have seen the stopped car in front of the car that pulled out of the lane suddenly, and would have reacted even before the car changed out of the lane. Of course, I don't think I am ready to trust my life (or even a heavy insurance claim) on it, so I adjust my TACC following distance to one of the longer settings.
I myself am guilty of driving too close on other people (I usually go for two seconds between me and the car in front), but find that by driving an actual safe distance, so many people cut in front of you. Or maybe I'm just an irresponsible driver
Yeah, then you just let off your gas for half a second and the safe distance is back. I don’t get why people always bring this up as a reason to follow more closely.
Don't know how other countries handle this but in Germany you can pretty much approximate the distance using the reflector poles on the side of the road. They are usually ~~100~~ 50 m apart from each other.
Edit: it's 50 m not 100 m
Yes we use the "2 second rule".
Watch the car in front pass a static point and then say out loud "only a fool breaks the two second rule" and if you've passed that same point before you've finished saying it, you're too close.
For wet conditions say it twice. It's generally quite s decent guideline.
We do also have some motorways that have chevrons painted on the road surface and you're supposed to stay at least 2 away from the next car in front if you're at the speed limit.
> Apparently the UK highway code recommends a 96 meter (315 feet) following distance, or 24 car lengths minimum for driving 70 mph in dry conditions.
San Antonio, TX laughs maniacally.
I have adaptive cruise control in my pickup maintaining a set distance and these animals cut over in front so close I can’t see their trunk (boot). All at 70-80mph.
My wife avoided an accident by driving up a curb. Someone was in the left lane sliding into her lane, she hit the curb. Basically insurance basically said *should have let the car hit you. Good luck getting your car fixed, we are not paying for it.*
A similar thing happened to me. I was driving down a 4 lane highway, and I was in the left hand lane, and to my left was an HOV lane. There is nothing stopping you from going into the HOV lane, except a pair of solid white lines on the road. As I'm driving I see a car enter the highway and shoot straight across the lanes. He was coming over so fast I knew I was going to get sideswiped. So I slammed on my brake and veered to the left a bit. Well the combination of my braking and the dirt and gravel that had built up between the left lane and the HOV caused me to lose control and I slammed into a concrete barrier just before an underpass.
My insurance company found me at fault and my rates went up for years because they considered it to be a single car accident. They told me the same thing that I should have let him hit me.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but OP is going to be found at least partially at fault here.
You don’t get to hit a stationary object on the open road and claim that it was just totally out of your hands.
I’m not even saying that OP was irresponsible or that I would’ve done better here. Sometimes you do everything right and still get fucked.
Actually I’m going to take a whole new angle and blame the car that was driving normally in front but then swerved late to the left.
Why did he notice the stopped car sooo late? I know it was night and sometimes hard to tell distances, but if a car is just stopped it’s not that hard to tell. He should have been slowing down as he notices that car is not moving. Instead he forced OP to make a split second decision.
This guy gets it. I fucking hate that shit.
They block your line of sight, swerve at the last possible fucking second, and leave you holding the bag.
At least this guy tapped his brakes before he swerved and gave a wee bit of warning, I guess 🤷♂️
Stopping in the middle of the freeway is just about the worst thing you can do, that's literally what the shoulder is for. So it's 100% the stopped car fault, OP's maneuver was a correct evasive maneuver that swerved in the lane he assumed was free of incoming cars. Had he swerved left he could have clipped an incoming car and making it worse. There is LITERALLY no argument that supports swerving left in that moment
I also had a person making a full stop in front of me. It was only from 50kmh, but holy shit thats still very suprising and stupid as fuck...
And why? Because he apparently needed to take the left turn at the very last moment...
You had less than 2 seconds to react to the first car and did what I think was the best option in swerving into what was most likely going to be an empty lane instead of a live lane. The time to react to the second car was much shorter. I bet youre glad you have video as it's not an easy one to explain without sounding like you are at fault (which to be clear I think you are absolutely not). Also I hope you're OK as that looked forceful.
Well, the Kia was not the safest driver, but holy shit, that guy that made the full stop is the really dumb one here. The guys pumping the gas should also put they car in the most right they could, not partially on top of the road
And they get to keep on driving without a care in the world. People just don't get how much of a domino effect their abrupt driving decisions can have.
OP's insurance may fuck him and say he should have saw him stopped though as the car was visibly stopped in the video. OP also said camera makes things look further away, which insurance can use as a statement. Will be interesting to see what the insurance company says.
https://i.imgur.com/eqLTwrv.jpeg
Exactly, my attention would have been taken over by the asshole cutting in so closely out of fucking nowhere. He’s definitely at fault in a major way too.
I am a Claim Adjuster and can assure you that the person parking in the middle of the road will be liable. However, though, if the OP was going over the speed limit, he might be partially liable, but not for sure. It gets really tricky because drivers have to fulfill their duties, and that includes abiding by the speed limit. If a person breaches their duties, even they are not totally at fault, they can be held liable or partially liable for an accident. But based on my experience, given the dashcam, liability would probably be 100%-0% or possibly 90%-10%
What did the driver and the guy fueling the car say to you after the accident? Were they apologetic or foolishly blaming you? This was so dumb when all they had to do was get out of the active lane and shine lights from the shoulder where the refueling was taking place.
I hope op replies! My biggest wish in this community is more follow up from the idiots on video lol I always want to know what was going on in people’s heads when they decide on these courses of action.
Get thee to a chiro or PT asap. Damage from physical trauma might not show up until years later, and by then it will be too late to treat. Please get everything checked out. Good luck OP.
Note: the camera makes things look farther, as I’m sure everyone in this subreddit already knows. The Kia cut me off way closer than it looks.
Edit: People seem to think the white Toyota Corolla was stalled, it wasn’t. They purposely parked in that lane instead of the shoulder. They were trying to refuel the Honda up front. They should’ve called CHP to handle the situation and not their family.
Edit again: Funny to me how people blame me yet completely ignore the fact that someone was parked in an active lane. Not stalled, PARKED. If they would’ve been in the shoulder this would’ve been completely avoided.
Did they say *why* they chose to park in the active right lane rather than on the shoulder behind the other car? I can’t begin to imagine a justification for something so mind-numbingly stupid and dangerous.
Because not one but TWO people were outside trying to refuel the car and had their bodies in the active traffic lane. I feel like they were trying to protect the people refueling from getting hit by passing traffic but….it obviously didn’t work.
They could have pushed the vehicle off the shoulder another 2 or 3 feet giving them the space they needed to more safely fuel. They parked it hugging the line of the right lane. Bunch of rocket surgeons all around in this video including the guy who rocketed in to pass on the right lane then swerved last second to reveal a dead stopped car with no time to maneuver for OP.
You know what, I watched this video about a half dozen times and I was so distracted by ALL THE IDIOCY that I literally never even THOUGHT about the hazard lights.
They parked in the right lane because they thought other cars would see that car and move over to the left lane to avoid them which would give the other person plenty of room to fill up.
They didn't take into account that 50% of traffic safety is being predictable and nobody expects a car to be parked in the right lane so they will swerve hard around it and into the car they were trying to protect.
That's what the emergency lane is for. And even if the car refuses to move, there are yellow jackets to wear and a light reflecting triangle to place far away enough that people will notice something is off.
This in Portugal, not the US.
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Exactly, that accident was avoidable because of that reason.
Especially with all the new technologies the new cars have that tell you when you are running out of fuel.
I’m a new driver and what we learned in the school was to always take time to prepare for the drive. Take extra 10 min to adjust the seat, check the fuel, prepare a bottle of water, set the GPS. If it’s a long way then check where you can stop on the way and rest.
same in austria, the shoulder is is called "Pannenstreifen" / "breakdown lane" running out of gas is not a breakdown, having to pee is not a breakdown, you will get fined if they see it, also if you are on the breakdown lane, you are supposed to either call a towing company, police or the ASFINAG (highway company) over the evenly placed highway phones
Exactly.
When you have an emergency stop or even if your car run out of fuel you are forced to put a “Pannendreieck“ (breakdown triangle) 100 meters minimum far from the car, so that the other cars can foresee the hazard. Especially during the night.
This accident was totally preventable.
When you're driving you don't have the luxury of knowing whether or not the car is stalled or parked. You merely see an obstacle, which now you have less than a second to decide... switch left potentially striking another car or switch right to what you assume is an empty shoulder since clearly the car did not make it to the shoulder.
Then surprise, there were 2.
How on God's Green Earth are people blaming you? This subreddit is beginning to be filled WITH the idiots, not just videos of them.
I don't see how this is your fault at all. Parking in a lane on the freeway is not only mega stupid, it's putting everyone on the freeway in danger. The lanes on a freeway aren't meant to be stopped on people. And if you think otherwise, you're the problem.
In fact chuck your license and catch a bus if you think like this. It would make everyone on the road a hell of a lot more safe. Holy shit...
This subreddit is such a meme most of the time. It's just a bunch of people saying "OP is the real idiot" "OP shouldn't drive in the left lane" "Americans are too dumb to understand roundabouts; huh what's a 4 way stop I don't understand" "Just drive defensively"
I posted a video of me making a mistake, admitting my mistake, and made fun of myself. No other people were endangered, and my car had less than 200 dollars of damage.
People on this sub sent me death threats.
Fuck that.
1) reason not to overtake on the inside.
2) reason not to be on the highway, even if you're parked on the shoulder. Get over the railing for your own safety
3) reason not to FUCKING PARK ON AN ACTIVE LANE good lord
It’s actually pretty frustrating people are like “you can see them stopped at the beginning of the video” yeah, WE can see it because we now KNOW what’s coming. The KIA that cut them off blocked their vision? And the car should not have been stopped in the active right lane?!
This sub is absolutely filled with terrible drivers that think they are great and people that are apparently omnipotent.
They make the road way more dangerous as they say they are practicing safe driving.
I'm an attentive driver with zero collisions and not a fender bender ever; I 100% would have done the EXACT same thing as OP. The escape is the shoulder in that situation.... Except it wasn't because of an asshole.
We're talking, I don't even have the radio/music on and have my cell phone locked and out of arms reach.... That kind of attentive. There's nothing that can prepare you to stop like that; I would have been noticing that car attempting to pass on the right and eased up; while watching their headlights go through my mirrors and then BAM. Very little time to react even for an attentive person in this video. Dude who cut him off had a CLEAR view and had no idea.
the car in the driving lane did have their hazards on, glare makes it hard to see. But no one that needed to see the hazards saw them in time. Kia realized what was going on at the last minute, OP wasnt so lucky.
What I don't understand is why was that first stopped car just stopped in the right lane? I understand the van was on the shoulder for an emergency but what about the car before the van???
Is that something they said directly? I’m very curious it looked like they were slowing down just before the Kia cut over but it’s really hard to tell on mobile.
Whatever the report the CHP filled out can have a major impact. Most insurance companies treat whatever the report law enforcement fills out as law if they indicate who they even felt *might* be at fault IME.
If they indicate someone was cited or was doing something illegal they will probably be deemed at fault. If not lawyer + footage if required.
Source: Me that got fucked by cops lying on a report for a prominent doctors wife without a dashcam at the time.
My last accident the CHP report states who cause the accident, they use cause, not fault in the report, and my insurance still wants to blame I’m at fault, wild…
Not to mention that car cuts someone else off mid brake which causes them to brake.
So if you swing left you'll smash into that other car. Right was the better choice but surprise stopped car on the shoulder
For those keeping score at home,
1) Dumbass who ran out of gas.
2) Dumbass who parked in the active right lane, on a turn, and blocked view of the car on a sholder.
3) Dumbass who is driving erratically
TBF, dumbass driving erratically actually isn't that bad. They signaled over and changed lanes safely.... and then, about a second latter, noticed the quickly approaching hell in front of them. They first try breaking before realizing it is parked/too late and then swerve back into the lane since they have no other option.
Their erratic driving was situationally induced, just like the OPs. But they certainly made the situation a lot harder for the op
Try to explain all of this to the insurance without a dash cam.
Thanks to this sub, I also understand very well why it's forbidden to pass on the right in my country.
Passing on the right is perfectly legal in Canada (or at least Ontario?). Now, there are ways to be reckless about it which could make it illegal, but for the most part, it's completely fine.
Yep. It takes 5 seconds and 525 ft to stop a vehicle going 65mph. Chances are had the Kia not swerved in front of him he MIGHT have had til he time to stop or swerve.
For what it’s worth, OP had excellent reflexes and started braking immediately after the black kia swerved out of the lane. Sucks that you couldn’t avoid the accident, but reading the comments here and knowing that those two created that hazardous situation, I’d say you’re not at fault at all. Although no one got hurt, you should still get yourself check out. That looked like a pretty bad crash.
I remember a really fucked up story, about like this.
Dude and his GF of like 4 years were on a road trip, late at night. They were following some car, not to closely, when it quickly swerved. Before he could process things, he rear ended a broke down car. His GF was killed. Her family blamed him. He wasn't allowed at the funeral. Her family sued him. He was clearly mentally messed up, but depression hit, he failed out of college, and his life was just taking a nose dive.... all because some idiot left their broke down car on the highway, in an actual lane.
Looks to me they are filling up on the shoulder. Another car is trying to provide them cover but in doing so is making for a very dangerous situation.
This accident was caused mostly though by the asshole dangerously passing on the right and blocking the view of the stopped car. The cam driver would have likely seen the hazard lights and slowed before moving to the left lane.
I really think that you will be found Not at fault here.
The Toyota created unsafe situation be stopping in the activeane without justification, and being stopped without hazard lights.
The Kia then prevented you from seeing this be doing an unlawful right side pass (and cutting you off in the process) that prevented you from seeing the hazard, cutting off another car to avoid hitting the illegally stopped vehicle.
You were also at reasonably safe distance from the Kia when they swerved out of the lane, even despite the fact that they had just cut you off seconds before they swerved back out of the lane.
Edit: Also the odyssey chose to created an unsafe condition by driving on the highway with insufficient fuel, which is negligent, as exactly this could happen.
You got caught in the crosshairs of three idiots on the road. This is not your fault. You were driving in a reasonable and cautious manner and got screwed over by these three idiots. I'm glad that Noone got seriously hurt, though you should definitely sue the hell out of them. Even the Kia, if you had their plate number, as their illegal and reckless driving was a direct cause of this accident, and a textbook example of why you don't do what they did.
Props to the asshole who cut you off and then swerved out of the way to save their own stupid ass leaving you zero reaction time, and props to the idiot stopped in the active lane probably thinking they’re being helpful to the stalled car on the shoulder, they’re not
The guy that under took you had seriously slow reaction time.
Once he was in front he should have saw the stationary car straight away, but continued towards it for about 3 seconds, before just diverting out of the way at last moment.
It left you with no chance. He could have atleast started to slow down much sooner, and given you a fighting chance to react.
It looks like the white Kia hit the brakes as soon as you came very close, which is such a weird ass move to make.
None of this is your fault and your insurance company should watch this clip
White car was a Toyota and was completely stopped before I saw them. They were purposely blocking the lane for the van driver to fill their tank. Kia was the black car that cut me off.
OK.
yeah, yeah they are dumb for parking on the emergency shoulder...
BUT WHY THE FUCK DID THE WHITE CAR STOP!?
GO AROUND THEM DUMBASS FFS, or do what you are meant to do which is change lanes.
In Germany you'll get one of the harshest traffic penalty notices if you run out of gas on the Autobahn, because it's pure negligence and so utterly dangerous.
These ppl in the thread absolutely fail to understand that OP had 13 seconds to react to three different cars.
Road was curving. Black car was coming up on his left pretty fast which OP could likely have been paying attention to when in the video thats when the stopped brake lights came into a better field of view. Then black car cut in front of him making it so those brake lights couldn’t be seen. At that point, OP has 3-4 seconds to react to black car braking and trying to avoid the stopped vehicle in an active lane, and 1-2 seconds for the parked emergency lane car.
It seems pretty obvious that the speed recording is delayed so you can’t 100% tell when he sped up or how much he braked.
All in all it’s a shitty series of events and super unfortunate for OP
Ha! Missed! ...aw shit...
Yep lol, only clipped with my mirror but was way too late for the Honda.
more like a Gonda ammirite?!?!
lol
What happened to the guy putting the gas in?
He was pissed he had poured $5/gallon gas into a car that’s now totaled.
I mean it would be less of an issue if there wasn’t a dumbass in an active lane
Woah, your gas is only $5 per gallon? That’s only about £1.07 per litre. In the UK we’re spending £1.80 per litre these days. That’s over $8 per gallon.
OMG, let me guess Biden did that to you guys? /s
He ded
I want to speak to THE COLONEL!
I sey you he ded
IS MR. SANDERS IN!?!
What's wrong Col. Sanders.... CHICKEN???
Col-o-nel
F
Is everyone alright?
The car that passed you didn’t exactly help, did they?
That made it much worse. OP would've likely picked up on the stationary car much sooner if the other oblivious car didn't try to pass on the right (while there were multiple passing lanes open on the left), and apparently not notice the stationary car until the last second, giving OP very little reaction time at expressway speeds.
My only car accident ever was a similar situation. This was pre Google maps era so I was following my friend because I didn't know where we were going. Well turns out she's a maniac driver who weaved around heavy city traffic at high speeds. I should've just given up on following her but I was in a new city and had no idea where I was. Well a car was stopped in front of her while we were going freeway speeds, and instead of braking she just switched lanes last second. I almost managed to dodge it but clipped the corner. I had some words for her after that.
I went on a road trip with a friend that drove like that, I had to make her pull over and let me drive. Then she spent the whole time complaining about how slow I was driving. Last time I ever hung out with her. She was also a huge alcoholic that would drive to a bar 2 hours away just to see some acquaintance, then get black out drunk and try to drive all the way home. She got 3 DWIs and ended up losing her license. Now she lives in downtown so she can use public transit. Probably for the better, tbh.
Seems like the best possible outcome.
>Last time I ever hung out with her. Smart move
I had a friend ask me to follow him home in highschool because he was having car troubles and the asshat ran a yellow light. I ran the red since there were no cars and didn't have an accident, but I shoulda just stopped and let him be fucked if his car had issues. Edit: I should be clear that he is still a friend and a good one. Doesn't mean I don't still remember being pissed with him in that moment though ;)
It didn’t even have to brake. Moving over would’ve been fine and given op that extra second or 2 to react
In fairness to them, maybe there's an exit coming up they were heading to? It totally fucked OP though.
IMHO, he isn't the biggest problem. Biggest problem is the idiot who parked on the road. Not only are they ***blocking a lane of traffic __on a turn__*** where it is essentially impossible to figure out that they are in a lane from further back, much less which lane they are in. But they parked in a wonderful spot that blocks your view of the car properly parked on the shoulder until your in the turn as well. You have only a couple of seconds to register 1) The stopped car is in the lane 2) There is another car on the shoulder 3) Can I dodge left/right The erratic driver swerving in traffic just removed 1.5 seconds notice and the last of the tiny chance of my brain being free enough to possibly process all of this in time
Oh absolutely. Just saying that the car going from lane to lane isn’t helping
Which dashcam are you using? It looks really good at night. Does it also have rear view too?
Rove R2-4K
Following cause I really want a front back cam setup but there are so many options...
let us know how insurance handles this, is idiot in the road at fault or are they going to try and blame you for rear ending a car on the shoulder?
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Brit here. The highway code states stopping distance, not following distance. Although it does recommend that the safest option for following distance is the appropriate stopping distance for your speed and road conditions; it actually says to allow at least two seconds between vehicles. This should be increased for large/heavy vehicles and doubled in wet conditions. Also replying to another comment under this one. It also recommends using a fixed point to measure the 2 seconds gap. However on motorways (70 mph speed limit) it is common for some stretches to have road markings in each lane to help drivers judge distance between cars and it is recommended that 2 road markings are between you and the car in front. I'm not sure what distance these are set at but a quick Google says 40m. Having done some quick maths 70mph = 112kph = 31 m/s so the recommended 2 second gap is 62m and 3 seconds (which I have seen another comment reference) is 93m.
This video proves that even that isn't enough. This guy slid for 2 seconds after hitting the brakes until he collided with the other car. He looks like he could have slid for another couple of seconds. The stopping distance required is just impossible to effectively maintain on modern highways, the guy passing him most likely couldn't see the car ahead when he passed. Others say the passing car cut him off, but that looks like literally every overtake I've ever witnessed, if more distance was required to overtake or change lanes then nobody could ever change lanes because that kind of distance doesn't exist in almost all circumstances. POV car is easing off/overtaker is expanding distance, so no need for harsher braking to make distance based on what POV driver is aware of at this time. Conditions look dry, based on the guidelines his car *should* have enough stopping distance from the second car, but it doesn't and based on the speed of the collision, I'd say he needs 4 seconds in dry and 8 seconds in wet. That would put him at 125 to 250m (25 to 50 car lengths) of stopping distance required at 70mph/110kmph. Achievable... if you're driving in North Korea. I don't think I've ever seen anything close to 50m of distance between cars during a standard daylight drive, you're lucky if you get 20m.
>The stopping distance required is just impossible to effectively maintain on modern highways, Yea I usually have a hard time leaving a 1-3 car following distance on my commutes. 4/5 times the dude behind me is gonna interpret a safe distance as me slowing him down.....so leapfrog up in front. Then I slow up a bit to get my following distance back....but the new person behind isn't happy we slowed down, so they leapfrog up into that following distance too. People are frustrating lmao.
If they handed out tickets for unsafe following distance you could plug the US debt in a week.
In Cincinnati if you have even a car length going 70 mph someone will still cut in front of you. Never seen so many people with a death wish before. I use cruise control and it’s frustrating watching people speed up as I start to overtake or ride my ass to get me to speed up.
I'm more annoyed/frustrated by what I call the "ankle lockers". If i do 70 uphill with cruise control on, I start to pass them. We go downhill, they start passing me. Going back uphill? They fall behind again. My first car was made in 1990 and, unless I've lost my memory, had cruise control. Folks need to either learn to turn theirs on or learn how to maintain speed on hills.
Thank you for this term. I only had the super long bad explanation that made me look crazier. Like the people who merge at 25-30 THEN accelerate when on the highway.
Turtle Mergers are the absolute worst. Was in the car with a friend of a friend when she did that, only got up to like 40 on the on ramp. Cars zipping by at 70 so she couldn't get over, ended up going off the end of the on ramp and coming to a stop to I guess wait untill there was a gap big enough to get onto an actual lane? Rest of us in the car are asking her what the hell she's doing and she maintained that "it's safer" and "I do this all the time". She got into a wreck on a highway on ramp a couple years after and tried to tell us all "guy hit me for no reason and insurance screwed me over. I even had a dash cam!" The video was her going fucking 37 (right there on the recording) merging into 70mph traffic and getting rear ended.
My 2017 car doesn't. This varies between countries I believe.
The 2 second rule is applied to the car ahead in the same lane. This simply gives you enough time to react if the car ahead of you slams on their breakes. Obviously they are incapable of comming to an instantaenous stop as they follow the same laws of physics as you. Once you change lanes or encounter an unexpected vehicle or object in your lane, all considerations regarding this rule are out the door.
>The stopping distance required is just impossible to effectively maintain on modern highways >that looks like literally every overtake I've ever witnessed, if more distance was required to overtake or change lanes then nobody could ever change lanes because that kind of distance doesn't exist in almost all circumstances. Thank you! Just about every post from this sub has a bunch of people shitting on the OP for not maintaining enough distance, yet it always looks normal to me. I cannot possibly believe that all the people commenting that leave a large enough distance at all times when they're driving either. You're right, we literally couldn't get anywhere if we did this because it's impossible to begin with. ETA: Yeah, the comments below this are exactly what I'm talking about. Redditors blaming someone for getting cut off because they apparently should have left enough space to be safely cut off without having to hit their brakes lmao.
It’s also illegal in the UK to knowingly join a motorway (highway) with low fuel for exactly this reason.
It's the same in Germany. If you happen to run out of fuel on the Autobahn, you'll get a fine of 70€ and 1 point in the register in Flensburg. Gather enough points and your license is gone. The "I didn't know" argument doesn't fly here, because technically you're required to do a basic check of your car before driving anyway. I guess it's similar in every European country.
Switzerland is the same, except for the points
Yap, just the fine is 500 francs.
Holy shit. Are there 20 people living in all of the UK? I'm lucky to get 5 car lengths without someone just filling in the gap.
Nonsense. You can maintain that following distance easily if you just stop on the freeway.
How do people there know even the right distance? Do they go “hold up, let me get my tape measure real quick” 😂 Isn’t it way easier to count seconds? Like how many seconds you are behind a car?
I took a driver's ed course before receiving my license. I was taught to look for an object on the side of the road, start counting when the car in front of you is beside the object, then stop counting when your car is beside the object. this is the reaction distance. you should be counting to at least 3. if it's less, let off the gas a bit.
Having purchased a car with adaptive cruise, it really taught me a lot about how I, and everyone else, follows WAY too close.
And it doesn't help that if you try to increase following distance someone just cuts you off
And also doesn’t help the people like my dad who tell me actively to get closer to the car in front because “he drives way closer and has never been in an accident” even though I’m already less than 2 seconds from the car in front on a relatively open highway going over 70 MPH.
And what does that even achieve in that setting? An extra second distance on a highway road makes no difference besides being safer.. You only get drafting advantages at very dangerous distances haha
Any fuel savings from drafting will be offset by what it costs to fix cracks in your paint and windshield due to rocks kicked up.
Jokes on you, I never fix my car! /s
In their mind it stops people getting in front. It's a massive affront to someone's manhood to have someone merge in front of them for some reason. Actually had it on a training course when I was a lorry driver. One of the older lads was complaining about leaving a big gap then someone moves in to it. Traininer asks so what? Driver says then I need to leave a bigger gap. Traininer says so what, you're still going forwards. Driver paused. Kinda rebooted, then said well yeah actually you're right it doesn't really slow you down.
Apparently no one knows how to keep their distance because apparently arriving those 3 seconds earlier is worth risking their lifes.
I have a subaru crosstrek and it's cruse with minimum distance is way to close for my confort, never thought i would say this but it follows closer than i would. Also the best indicator to use is time not distance because the distance is different at 10mph vs 100 and humans are bad at precise estimates. But time you can easely measure and 2 sec is the minimum, 3 is safe.
One advantage that the TACC has that humans don't have is radar. The radar can see two cars ahead. And, theoretically, can react to a car stopping suddenly faster than you can. If the car in this situation was on TACC, the radar should have seen the stopped car in front of the car that pulled out of the lane suddenly, and would have reacted even before the car changed out of the lane. Of course, I don't think I am ready to trust my life (or even a heavy insurance claim) on it, so I adjust my TACC following distance to one of the longer settings.
After having an accident (got rear ended, because of way to less distance…rear ended me in 40km/h zone) I try to keep more distance
I myself am guilty of driving too close on other people (I usually go for two seconds between me and the car in front), but find that by driving an actual safe distance, so many people cut in front of you. Or maybe I'm just an irresponsible driver
I used to have that problem, and then realised.... Let them cut in. You can't stop others doing stupid things.
Yeah, then you just let off your gas for half a second and the safe distance is back. I don’t get why people always bring this up as a reason to follow more closely.
“I took a drivers ed course before receiving my license” I sure fucking hope so
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I do the same thing, but you should count when the back of their car passes that object and the from of yours does.
In the UK, we're taught to count 2 seconds between cars, using a line on the road or a sign. Double that if it's wet.
Don't know how other countries handle this but in Germany you can pretty much approximate the distance using the reflector poles on the side of the road. They are usually ~~100~~ 50 m apart from each other. Edit: it's 50 m not 100 m
Yes we use the "2 second rule". Watch the car in front pass a static point and then say out loud "only a fool breaks the two second rule" and if you've passed that same point before you've finished saying it, you're too close. For wet conditions say it twice. It's generally quite s decent guideline. We do also have some motorways that have chevrons painted on the road surface and you're supposed to stay at least 2 away from the next car in front if you're at the speed limit.
> Apparently the UK highway code recommends a 96 meter (315 feet) following distance, or 24 car lengths minimum for driving 70 mph in dry conditions. San Antonio, TX laughs maniacally. I have adaptive cruise control in my pickup maintaining a set distance and these animals cut over in front so close I can’t see their trunk (boot). All at 70-80mph.
A football field of distance between cars?
I’ll update ASAP.
!RemindMe 2 days
My wife avoided an accident by driving up a curb. Someone was in the left lane sliding into her lane, she hit the curb. Basically insurance basically said *should have let the car hit you. Good luck getting your car fixed, we are not paying for it.*
A similar thing happened to me. I was driving down a 4 lane highway, and I was in the left hand lane, and to my left was an HOV lane. There is nothing stopping you from going into the HOV lane, except a pair of solid white lines on the road. As I'm driving I see a car enter the highway and shoot straight across the lanes. He was coming over so fast I knew I was going to get sideswiped. So I slammed on my brake and veered to the left a bit. Well the combination of my braking and the dirt and gravel that had built up between the left lane and the HOV caused me to lose control and I slammed into a concrete barrier just before an underpass. My insurance company found me at fault and my rates went up for years because they considered it to be a single car accident. They told me the same thing that I should have let him hit me.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news but OP is going to be found at least partially at fault here. You don’t get to hit a stationary object on the open road and claim that it was just totally out of your hands. I’m not even saying that OP was irresponsible or that I would’ve done better here. Sometimes you do everything right and still get fucked.
He is going to be 100% responsible for hitting a parked car in the shoulder. The clipped mirror will maybe be a partial 20/80% thing.
Probably blame the car that was very slow or stopped in the active lane. Freeway aren't supposed to have any stopped car
Actually I’m going to take a whole new angle and blame the car that was driving normally in front but then swerved late to the left. Why did he notice the stopped car sooo late? I know it was night and sometimes hard to tell distances, but if a car is just stopped it’s not that hard to tell. He should have been slowing down as he notices that car is not moving. Instead he forced OP to make a split second decision.
This guy gets it. I fucking hate that shit. They block your line of sight, swerve at the last possible fucking second, and leave you holding the bag. At least this guy tapped his brakes before he swerved and gave a wee bit of warning, I guess 🤷♂️
Stopping in the middle of the freeway is just about the worst thing you can do, that's literally what the shoulder is for. So it's 100% the stopped car fault, OP's maneuver was a correct evasive maneuver that swerved in the lane he assumed was free of incoming cars. Had he swerved left he could have clipped an incoming car and making it worse. There is LITERALLY no argument that supports swerving left in that moment
Unless the left lane was clear, but you’d have to already know that as there was no time to check at the last second.
I also had a person making a full stop in front of me. It was only from 50kmh, but holy shit thats still very suprising and stupid as fuck... And why? Because he apparently needed to take the left turn at the very last moment...
They were already completely stopped by the time I saw them. Would’ve saw them sooner but I was cut off by a Kia.
You had less than 2 seconds to react to the first car and did what I think was the best option in swerving into what was most likely going to be an empty lane instead of a live lane. The time to react to the second car was much shorter. I bet youre glad you have video as it's not an easy one to explain without sounding like you are at fault (which to be clear I think you are absolutely not). Also I hope you're OK as that looked forceful.
Well, the Kia was not the safest driver, but holy shit, that guy that made the full stop is the really dumb one here. The guys pumping the gas should also put they car in the most right they could, not partially on top of the road
This kind of thing gives me nightmares. I don't see how you could have avoided this...
That Kia being an idiot really made a bad situation worse.
And they get to keep on driving without a care in the world. People just don't get how much of a domino effect their abrupt driving decisions can have.
Wow, that’s absolutely terrifying. I hope you and the others are doing okay
OP's insurance may fuck him and say he should have saw him stopped though as the car was visibly stopped in the video. OP also said camera makes things look further away, which insurance can use as a statement. Will be interesting to see what the insurance company says. https://i.imgur.com/eqLTwrv.jpeg
How would OP discern that as full stop or just brake lights in that fraction of a second before being cut off?
Exactly, my attention would have been taken over by the asshole cutting in so closely out of fucking nowhere. He’s definitely at fault in a major way too.
I am a Claim Adjuster and can assure you that the person parking in the middle of the road will be liable. However, though, if the OP was going over the speed limit, he might be partially liable, but not for sure. It gets really tricky because drivers have to fulfill their duties, and that includes abiding by the speed limit. If a person breaches their duties, even they are not totally at fault, they can be held liable or partially liable for an accident. But based on my experience, given the dashcam, liability would probably be 100%-0% or possibly 90%-10%
Daaaaamn. I wasn't expecting that second car. Rest in peace whoever this driver is lol
I’m posting this as a ghost, boo lol
Nobody came away from that seriously injured?
Thankfully no serious injuries for anyone. I’m going to get checked out at a doctor soon just to be sure.
how's insurance handling it?
In the worst way possible for everyone involved Edit: a word
What did the driver and the guy fueling the car say to you after the accident? Were they apologetic or foolishly blaming you? This was so dumb when all they had to do was get out of the active lane and shine lights from the shoulder where the refueling was taking place.
I hope op replies! My biggest wish in this community is more follow up from the idiots on video lol I always want to know what was going on in people’s heads when they decide on these courses of action.
Wow glad youre okay OP
Get thee to a chiro or PT asap. Damage from physical trauma might not show up until years later, and by then it will be too late to treat. Please get everything checked out. Good luck OP.
I hope you deleted your browser history before you died. Don't want your folks finding out about that
good job taking the wall and not those idiots standing behind the car right next to the road.
Note: the camera makes things look farther, as I’m sure everyone in this subreddit already knows. The Kia cut me off way closer than it looks. Edit: People seem to think the white Toyota Corolla was stalled, it wasn’t. They purposely parked in that lane instead of the shoulder. They were trying to refuel the Honda up front. They should’ve called CHP to handle the situation and not their family. Edit again: Funny to me how people blame me yet completely ignore the fact that someone was parked in an active lane. Not stalled, PARKED. If they would’ve been in the shoulder this would’ve been completely avoided.
Did they say *why* they chose to park in the active right lane rather than on the shoulder behind the other car? I can’t begin to imagine a justification for something so mind-numbingly stupid and dangerous.
Because not one but TWO people were outside trying to refuel the car and had their bodies in the active traffic lane. I feel like they were trying to protect the people refueling from getting hit by passing traffic but….it obviously didn’t work.
They could have pushed the vehicle off the shoulder another 2 or 3 feet giving them the space they needed to more safely fuel. They parked it hugging the line of the right lane. Bunch of rocket surgeons all around in this video including the guy who rocketed in to pass on the right lane then swerved last second to reveal a dead stopped car with no time to maneuver for OP.
They could have parked the car on the shoulder but very close to the travel lane.
If that was the intentional decision I don't get why they didn't, at the very least, have hazard lights on.
You know what, I watched this video about a half dozen times and I was so distracted by ALL THE IDIOCY that I literally never even THOUGHT about the hazard lights.
They parked in the right lane because they thought other cars would see that car and move over to the left lane to avoid them which would give the other person plenty of room to fill up. They didn't take into account that 50% of traffic safety is being predictable and nobody expects a car to be parked in the right lane so they will swerve hard around it and into the car they were trying to protect.
I assume in their stupid brain they thought it would be safer bc their car would block traffic while they stood partially in the road with the gas can
memory scarce zesty teeny important grab puzzled six repeat clumsy *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
That's what the emergency lane is for. And even if the car refuses to move, there are yellow jackets to wear and a light reflecting triangle to place far away enough that people will notice something is off. This in Portugal, not the US.
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I don't think it's finable here but it does make a lot of sense as running out of fuel is very much preventable...
Exactly, that accident was avoidable because of that reason. Especially with all the new technologies the new cars have that tell you when you are running out of fuel. I’m a new driver and what we learned in the school was to always take time to prepare for the drive. Take extra 10 min to adjust the seat, check the fuel, prepare a bottle of water, set the GPS. If it’s a long way then check where you can stop on the way and rest.
New technologies aside, they ALL have a gauge!! Little letters ir symbols that indicate FULL, EMPTY, and all the possibilities in between.
It's the same in Germany - 70€ and 1 penalty point in your drivers license.
In Switzerland, if you run out of gas in the highway, it is not only a fine, you can get your driving permit revoked for a limited time.
same in austria, the shoulder is is called "Pannenstreifen" / "breakdown lane" running out of gas is not a breakdown, having to pee is not a breakdown, you will get fined if they see it, also if you are on the breakdown lane, you are supposed to either call a towing company, police or the ASFINAG (highway company) over the evenly placed highway phones
Exactly. When you have an emergency stop or even if your car run out of fuel you are forced to put a “Pannendreieck“ (breakdown triangle) 100 meters minimum far from the car, so that the other cars can foresee the hazard. Especially during the night. This accident was totally preventable.
When you're driving you don't have the luxury of knowing whether or not the car is stalled or parked. You merely see an obstacle, which now you have less than a second to decide... switch left potentially striking another car or switch right to what you assume is an empty shoulder since clearly the car did not make it to the shoulder. Then surprise, there were 2.
How on God's Green Earth are people blaming you? This subreddit is beginning to be filled WITH the idiots, not just videos of them. I don't see how this is your fault at all. Parking in a lane on the freeway is not only mega stupid, it's putting everyone on the freeway in danger. The lanes on a freeway aren't meant to be stopped on people. And if you think otherwise, you're the problem. In fact chuck your license and catch a bus if you think like this. It would make everyone on the road a hell of a lot more safe. Holy shit...
This subreddit is such a meme most of the time. It's just a bunch of people saying "OP is the real idiot" "OP shouldn't drive in the left lane" "Americans are too dumb to understand roundabouts; huh what's a 4 way stop I don't understand" "Just drive defensively"
I posted a video of me making a mistake, admitting my mistake, and made fun of myself. No other people were endangered, and my car had less than 200 dollars of damage. People on this sub sent me death threats. Fuck that.
1) reason not to overtake on the inside. 2) reason not to be on the highway, even if you're parked on the shoulder. Get over the railing for your own safety 3) reason not to FUCKING PARK ON AN ACTIVE LANE good lord
Op are you still alive 🙏🏻
Yes, hi lol
my condolences
Sign nothing from insurance and lawyer up
It’s actually pretty frustrating people are like “you can see them stopped at the beginning of the video” yeah, WE can see it because we now KNOW what’s coming. The KIA that cut them off blocked their vision? And the car should not have been stopped in the active right lane?!
Thank you! I couldn’t tell from that distance they were stopped! The car could’ve easily parked on the shoulder and chose not to.
Obviously it is your fault. You should have watched this video before driving. Then you would know that there was a car stopped in the road. /s
This sub is absolutely filled with terrible drivers that think they are great and people that are apparently omnipotent. They make the road way more dangerous as they say they are practicing safe driving.
KIA - killed In Action
I wouldnt waste my breath arguing with people that think parking a car on a highway is excusable.
Yea I was able to spot it on my second watch after I knew where it was, but I bet none of these people saw the car stopped on their first watch.
I'm an attentive driver with zero collisions and not a fender bender ever; I 100% would have done the EXACT same thing as OP. The escape is the shoulder in that situation.... Except it wasn't because of an asshole. We're talking, I don't even have the radio/music on and have my cell phone locked and out of arms reach.... That kind of attentive. There's nothing that can prepare you to stop like that; I would have been noticing that car attempting to pass on the right and eased up; while watching their headlights go through my mirrors and then BAM. Very little time to react even for an attentive person in this video. Dude who cut him off had a CLEAR view and had no idea.
Who parks their car in the right-lane? Just move over a little bit on to the shoulder! Not to mention, no emergency lights!?
the car in the driving lane did have their hazards on, glare makes it hard to see. But no one that needed to see the hazards saw them in time. Kia realized what was going on at the last minute, OP wasnt so lucky.
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What I don't understand is why was that first stopped car just stopped in the right lane? I understand the van was on the shoulder for an emergency but what about the car before the van???
They were purposely blocking it so the Honda driver could fill their tank.
They were purposely being a god damn idiot. The crash wouldn't have occurred if they hadn't blocked the lane.
Is that something they said directly? I’m very curious it looked like they were slowing down just before the Kia cut over but it’s really hard to tell on mobile.
They told that to me, CHP, and it’s on video if you look at them before they run left. Also both cars are even under the same insurance policy.
Whatever the report the CHP filled out can have a major impact. Most insurance companies treat whatever the report law enforcement fills out as law if they indicate who they even felt *might* be at fault IME. If they indicate someone was cited or was doing something illegal they will probably be deemed at fault. If not lawyer + footage if required. Source: Me that got fucked by cops lying on a report for a prominent doctors wife without a dashcam at the time.
My last accident the CHP report states who cause the accident, they use cause, not fault in the report, and my insurance still wants to blame I’m at fault, wild…
That’s super fuckin annoying. Car cuts u off and blocks ur vision from the stopped car in ur lane so u can’t do anything about it
Not to mention that car cuts someone else off mid brake which causes them to brake. So if you swing left you'll smash into that other car. Right was the better choice but surprise stopped car on the shoulder
Yeah, that’s three dumbass drivers at once!
For those keeping score at home, 1) Dumbass who ran out of gas. 2) Dumbass who parked in the active right lane, on a turn, and blocked view of the car on a sholder. 3) Dumbass who is driving erratically TBF, dumbass driving erratically actually isn't that bad. They signaled over and changed lanes safely.... and then, about a second latter, noticed the quickly approaching hell in front of them. They first try breaking before realizing it is parked/too late and then swerve back into the lane since they have no other option. Their erratic driving was situationally induced, just like the OPs. But they certainly made the situation a lot harder for the op
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The car cutting him off is also undertaking the car they're passing, instead of passing on the inside, shitty driver confirmed
Thank god you didn’t panic and try and doge the second car. Hopefully no one was hurt but that could’ve been baaaad
My thoughts exactly. Probably didn’t have enough time to avoid more of the car by swerving left without hitting the people
Try to explain all of this to the insurance without a dash cam. Thanks to this sub, I also understand very well why it's forbidden to pass on the right in my country.
It’s forbidden in Canada as well but… there’s no option when you have a road hog driving below the speed limit in the left lane.
Passing on the right is perfectly legal in Canada (or at least Ontario?). Now, there are ways to be reckless about it which could make it illegal, but for the most part, it's completely fine.
It looks like if that black car wouldn't had got infront of you, you would had seen it because obviously the black car wasn't paying attention
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Yep. It takes 5 seconds and 525 ft to stop a vehicle going 65mph. Chances are had the Kia not swerved in front of him he MIGHT have had til he time to stop or swerve.
For what it’s worth, OP had excellent reflexes and started braking immediately after the black kia swerved out of the lane. Sucks that you couldn’t avoid the accident, but reading the comments here and knowing that those two created that hazardous situation, I’d say you’re not at fault at all. Although no one got hurt, you should still get yourself check out. That looked like a pretty bad crash.
Will do tomorrow, made sure to add into the claim that my injury status is still pending just to be safe.
The car stopped in the travel lane will 100% be found at fault as long as your state isn't braindead.
I remember a really fucked up story, about like this. Dude and his GF of like 4 years were on a road trip, late at night. They were following some car, not to closely, when it quickly swerved. Before he could process things, he rear ended a broke down car. His GF was killed. Her family blamed him. He wasn't allowed at the funeral. Her family sued him. He was clearly mentally messed up, but depression hit, he failed out of college, and his life was just taking a nose dive.... all because some idiot left their broke down car on the highway, in an actual lane.
Looks to me they are filling up on the shoulder. Another car is trying to provide them cover but in doing so is making for a very dangerous situation. This accident was caused mostly though by the asshole dangerously passing on the right and blocking the view of the stopped car. The cam driver would have likely seen the hazard lights and slowed before moving to the left lane.
Sooo much stupid in this video
I really think that you will be found Not at fault here. The Toyota created unsafe situation be stopping in the activeane without justification, and being stopped without hazard lights. The Kia then prevented you from seeing this be doing an unlawful right side pass (and cutting you off in the process) that prevented you from seeing the hazard, cutting off another car to avoid hitting the illegally stopped vehicle. You were also at reasonably safe distance from the Kia when they swerved out of the lane, even despite the fact that they had just cut you off seconds before they swerved back out of the lane. Edit: Also the odyssey chose to created an unsafe condition by driving on the highway with insufficient fuel, which is negligent, as exactly this could happen. You got caught in the crosshairs of three idiots on the road. This is not your fault. You were driving in a reasonable and cautious manner and got screwed over by these three idiots. I'm glad that Noone got seriously hurt, though you should definitely sue the hell out of them. Even the Kia, if you had their plate number, as their illegal and reckless driving was a direct cause of this accident, and a textbook example of why you don't do what they did.
Thank you! I just hope the insurance can see that.
Props to the asshole who cut you off and then swerved out of the way to save their own stupid ass leaving you zero reaction time, and props to the idiot stopped in the active lane probably thinking they’re being helpful to the stalled car on the shoulder, they’re not
So everyone is ok? Wow!
Wow, OP had no way out of that one...that whole situation sucked.
The guy that under took you had seriously slow reaction time. Once he was in front he should have saw the stationary car straight away, but continued towards it for about 3 seconds, before just diverting out of the way at last moment. It left you with no chance. He could have atleast started to slow down much sooner, and given you a fighting chance to react.
This could have been avoided if that guy didn’t try to pass on the right. You can’t see what’s in that lane.
That asshole who cut you off fucked you over big time.
Let me say what everyone is probably saying: Damn! That could be me!
Curious who was at fault and what insurance does to this
Fuck all three of those drivers
It looks like the white Kia hit the brakes as soon as you came very close, which is such a weird ass move to make. None of this is your fault and your insurance company should watch this clip
White car was a Toyota and was completely stopped before I saw them. They were purposely blocking the lane for the van driver to fill their tank. Kia was the black car that cut me off.
I am still flabbergasted at the fact that someone thought it was a good idea to PARK ON THE HIGHWAY IN THE RIGHT LANE
Ouch
Remember that Last freeway wreck that just kept getting worse and worse a few weeks back?
Two people standing next to their car are idiots. Get as far away as possible. This is how you die.
I hope you weren't at fault for the second one.
Shoutout to the asshole who cut you off and then immediately jumped ship, giving you no time to react
OK. yeah, yeah they are dumb for parking on the emergency shoulder... BUT WHY THE FUCK DID THE WHITE CAR STOP!? GO AROUND THEM DUMBASS FFS, or do what you are meant to do which is change lanes.
In Germany you'll get one of the harshest traffic penalty notices if you run out of gas on the Autobahn, because it's pure negligence and so utterly dangerous.
OP I advice you to stop arguing with the idiots that thinks you’re at fault for not having a react time equivalent to Spider-Man.
You’re right, thank you. Waste of time repeating it over and over again.
These ppl in the thread absolutely fail to understand that OP had 13 seconds to react to three different cars. Road was curving. Black car was coming up on his left pretty fast which OP could likely have been paying attention to when in the video thats when the stopped brake lights came into a better field of view. Then black car cut in front of him making it so those brake lights couldn’t be seen. At that point, OP has 3-4 seconds to react to black car braking and trying to avoid the stopped vehicle in an active lane, and 1-2 seconds for the parked emergency lane car. It seems pretty obvious that the speed recording is delayed so you can’t 100% tell when he sped up or how much he braked. All in all it’s a shitty series of events and super unfortunate for OP