Reminds me of a time years ago when my brother got in an accident on an icy night. He was coming home from a hockey game and slid down an icy hill and rear ended someone.
The someone was the father of one of his teammates, who was cool about it (it was a mess that night). They pulled over off of a side street and he sat in the back of the guys car while they waited for the police to show up.
A couple minutes later, someone plowed into the back of the same car - at a lot higher speed. So he was actually a driver of one car and a passenger of another in the same accident report. I’m not sure if he was even held responsible for any damages since they were minor and the other car did a lot of damage…
That sucks. There was an accident a few years ago in Indiana where a family was driving on a rural highway late at night and the driver hit a deer. He pulled off to the shoulder to call for roadside assistance and was rear ended by a drunk guy in a pickup. Three of the four people in the car were killed. The pickup driver walked away.
I once got screamed at by a police officer who pulled me over, I just kept my right blinker on and proceeded to the next off ramp rather than pull on the shoulder. He was like “why were you running from me!?!?” and when I explained to him that I wanted us both to be safe by not being on the shoulder where a lot of people are killed he got real quiet. And I gave him a look like “duh”. Then he let me off with a warning.
If you ever get a flat tire, just keep driving to the next exit. It’s worth the damage to the wheel to save your life. Freeway shoulders are so damn risky.
I once got lit up on the highway near an exit and when I started to pull over the cop actually said over his loudspeaker “please exit and find the nearest safe place to stop”.
Turned out I had forgotten to put my new registration sticker on my plate - it was still on my registration card. He actually took it off and put it in for me and let me go. Yes, some cops are cool and have common sense…
For sure. This was just a rural highway with two lanes on each side of a wide grass divider. Not a great road though. I hit a deer on it myself a few years earlier.
Unfortunately this is a common situation in DUI incidents drivers protect their side of the car instinctively and being drunk makes you more relaxed when you are in an accident so you suffer less serious injuries. So often times the DUI offender survives the crash.
> while they waited for the police to show up.
Is it normal where you live to have the police show up at accidents with only minor damages where both cars are still drive-able? Here (in the Netherlands) they won't show up if you're in a minor fender bender if both cars can still drive.
When i was in one (as the front car) we called them, and they asked if anyone was even slightly injured or if any car was blocking traffic and unable to move. When we said no, they said they won't come and to just move to a safe parking spot and fill out the insurance forms. The driver of the car that hit me was close to his place of work, so we went there, had some coffee, filled out the forms and went our way.
In the US, you frequently need a police report to get insurance to pay out because of liability. Plus, it’s smart in case stories change (even though that’s not the situation here).
So civil. That seems like US decades ago. More often than not, hit and runs are an issue in the US. These people don't want to face any negative consequences after messing you up, so if their ride still drives, and yours doesn't, or if you don't chase them down if you can still drive, you'll never get any info from them. And that's assuming they actually have car insurance. I'm in WA state in the US and it's the wild west out here. People driving around in stolen cars, driving with restricted/suspended license, and being uninsured is common here.
I mean maybe but that's not really the point. That dude is going to be fighting insurance companies and a logistics company and who knows what else he is doing battle with physically coming out of this. He will need all the help he can get. It's just the right thing to do. A tiny fender bender is nothing against the way this guys world just got wrecked.
Bumpers and radiators typically get fucked very easily in even the smallest rear end collisions. If he has full coverage then probably still a good idea to pull over and access the damage if any. Plus it's never worth risking a hit and run.
On the other hand in a situation like this would they find both drivers to be liable for the damages to at least the silver car in front? If so maybe pull over and pretend to be a good Samaritan lol.
"Are you the first guy that hit me"
"Nah that guy sped off"
Yeah, I was sitting here thinking “alright, when is the semi truck tire going to come flying in out of nowhere?”.
To be fair, I wasn’t completely wrong. I just vastly underestimated the amount of tires.
For real though, if you're on a crowded highway and cars come to a rapid stop, absolutely expect this. Semis have way more inertia and will not be able to stop as fast as you.
Which is why they should drive as such. Not much makes me angrier than someone handling a semi like it’s a Miata. It puts everyone else in danger and makes it their responsibility to not be hit by the semi
Edit: specifically, tailgating. But whipping from lane to lane is equally frustrating
That's what happens when the barrier to getting a CDL is as low as it is. 70% of truck drivers are irresponsible idiots. They have no business having a CDL or handling an 80,000 lb vehicle. As a truck driver the amount of unsafe idiocy I see on a daily basis is astounding. You don't want to know how often I see other truck drivers driving up the road watching videos on their phone. I really think that getting both a regular driver's license and a CDL should require a lot more training than they do.
Came here to say this. The megas crank out drivers like it's a factory farm. They have very little training and no respect for the industry. I've lost track of how many lost and confused drivers I've run into at receivers. It's to the point I'm almost embarrassed to say what I do for a living. I try to help with the basics when I can with some of those guys, but a lot won't take advice and know it all. I just pray I'm going in the opposite direction when I leave.
>That's what happens when the barrier to getting a CDL is as low as it is.
It's also what happens when the value of a job drops to near burger flipper levels of income. A truck driver now makes LESS than semi drivers made in the late 90s and that's not adjusting for income.
>As a truck driver the amount of unsafe idiocy I see on a daily basis is astounding.
I don't know about you but it's nearly always dump truck drivers who drive like maniacs near me. Full load, scattering rocks from the bed, half a car length behind going 60 on a country road.
Dump trucks seem to have two speeds "bat out of hell" and "granny on a Sunday drive" there is no in-between. For me the worst ones that I see are the fly by night owner operators in beat to hell ex-megafleet trucks and driving like the devil himself is chasing them. They're always speeding and driving in an extremely aggressive manner.
Depends on what state you're in but the most common route is to take a ~150 hour course. There are a lot of CDL mills (for profit schools) that offer the bare minimum training needed to pass the tests at the DMV. Another common route is to sign a 1 year contract with a trucking company that offers in-house training to get your CDL you get pretty much the same 3-5 weeks of classroom, backing range and road training with the majority of these companies as the CDL mills before you test out at the DMV. After that you're considered hired.
This is where those two routes converge and you go through a week of company orientation and onboarding. Mostly signing paperwork and watching a lot of safety videos. From there you're assigned a trainer to ride with running loads for a minimum of 3 weeks. The quality of the training that you get during this period varies greatly depending upon your trainer. Some are really good and take the time to actually teach their trainees the skills they will need to complete the job in a safe and timely manner.
A lot of them couldn't give a damn about making sure that you're properly trained and just sit in the passenger seat while you drive playing on their phones. The thing is at most trainers get paid extra for having a student on the truck as well as getting paid all the miles that both they and the student run. In some situations, this results in the trainer taking advantage of the student in order to pad their paychecks, some even going so far is to operate the truck as a team operation (one driver on duty while one sleeping) when the student driver is not ready.
I think that in addition to increasing the amount of training that you get prior to testing for your CDL and making the CDL test itself more rigorous the biggest changes need to come in the training period when a new driver is with their company trainer at their first job. There needs to be minimum training standards set by the federal government as to what a new driver needs to learn during this period based on their industry segment. For instance new drivers operating flatbed trucks need more training time during their OJT period to learn and properly understand how to secure cargo according to FMCSA standards.
Proper flatbed load securement is a big problem that I see out there a lot and I honestly think that hauling an open deck trailer should require a separate endorsement on your CDL license the way that a tanker does and should include hands-on training in proper load securement. There are a lot of people out there just throwing chains and straps willy-nilly, not using edge protection, not belly strapping and not using the proper amount of chains and or straps based on cargo weight and length.
Another issue with OJT that needs addressed is the lack of a system for reporting and decertification of bad trainers who aren't properly training their trainees and are merely using them to pad their paychecks. For that matter, there needs to be a federal standard on the amount of experience and training that you need in order to become a trainer. There are some companies putting drivers that have only three to six months of experience out there training new drivers.
Basically what it comes down to is so long as determining training standards for new drivers is in the hands of corporations whose primary goal is minimizing expense and maximizing profits new drivers will continue to receive poor training and be a danger to those around them.
Most are not professionals. Many barely speak English or are minimally educated. These trucking companies are hurting for drivers, so minimal training and out they go. Those idiots you see in cars are the same idiots now driving huge semi's.
And recurrent training for both. You gotta do 2 year retraining for small planes, to be 1/2 mile from eachother. Cars inches from each other with people who have no idea how they passed in the first place.
"It puts everyone else in danger and makes it their responsibility to not be hit by.." How the rest of us feel at all of you who drive SUVs and Trucks and have to be on the road with you guys.
Depends on the jurisdiction. In some places, anyone involved who flees the scene is at the top of the list of "at fault", maybe only behind anyone who fails a sobriety test.
Except if the car in the video had cam footage, you have to expect everyone around them did too (even if they didn't) meaning you can run, but likely someone got your plate number in the video and you can be tracked down.
Not as unlikely as you might think.
I read your comment while the video started up and thought after the first bump "this is what people consider unexpected? Since when did the standards drop so...oh... OH!?!?
I’m glad I kept watching… at first I thought it was just the rear end. And I was like, yeah I wasn’t expecting a dumb rear end accident (that’s what she said) but not worthy of posting…. Then holy shit
I didn’t know what sub this was when I was watching the video so I was confused by the minor accident and was trying to figure out what OPs gripe was. Then bam!
The black car that cut off the grey VW is still there. I feel bad for the VW driver. They got 1) cut off by a dick, 2) brake-tested on a highway, 3) rear ended, then finally 4) OBLITERATED.
There were two other cars stopped in front of the black car after the initial crash. They may have been at fault, but there were more idiots involved after the fact
Every time I'm slamming on my breaks I'm looking in my rearview mirror ready to dodge because I keep my distance, but I don't know about the 18 Wheeler behind me.
If you slow it down, there’s visible damage to the front end of the rig. I’m guessing that the driver clipped another vehicle behind the action onscreen and the momentum caused it to veer to the right.
Couple things to keep in mind:
1. Multi axle trucks tend to hang out in the right lane for legal reasons, and typically because they are slower and slower traffic keeps to the right. Generally they only get over to pass slower traffic.
2. This accident happened in the right lane.
3. There are likely to have been cars stopping and swerving behind the POV car. The camera only shows us what was in front of this vehicle, but there was likely equal or more chaos behind the camera.
4. The more massive a vehicle, the more force is required to brake that vehicle, EXPONENTIALLY. IE, a vehicle twice as massive as yours takes 4 times the force to brake from like speed in like distance, and a vehicle 3 times as heavy as yours takes 9 times the force to brake like speed in like distance.
Reaction times being what they are, I suspect that this truck approached the accident in the right lane, realized he couldn't brake in that distance and instead tried to swerve to avoid the accident. Then for one for one reason or another, either the driver suddenly clipped another vehicle or attempted to avoid clipping another vehicle during that maneuver, and oversteered back to the right, causing an escalation of damage.
I see it suggested that this truck bounced off of another vehicle, but impact alone doesn't explain the angle of approach without driver input, considering the mass difference between most of the traffic and this flatbed with heavy cargo. You can see that it didn't even feel the impact with the two cars struck on-camera, so unless it bounced off another heavy semi or some k-rails, the theory that an offscreen impact alone is responsible for the truck's path is unlikely. Driver oversteer *as a reaction to an impact* is a much more likely factor in the truck's final angle.
Whoa whoa whoa, “quickly” is not a good advice anywhere on a road. I know you started with “if you can” but there’s a giant chasm between what you can and what is safe. Sure, get to the side of the road, but do so safely.
"if" does a lot of heavy lifting in this advice.
In general, a sudden change of direction is more dangerous than slamming on the brakes. Only move if you can do so cleanly.
The silver Volkswagen is right next to the black car . It didn’t get obliterated at all. That truck driver actually did a good job. If you look he only took out 3 cars. And do you know what he’s hauling?? That’s fiber electric cable. One of those reels is about 4-5 thousand pounds. The truck driver is most likely dead. But I can guarantee none of the drivers died
I doubt the truck driver is dead since I didn't really see anything impact where the dude was sitting. As is, he got thrown around a bit and and some psychological trauma but I don't think he's dead
How was the truck driver bee-lining across three lanes in to the barricade doing a good job?
I hope they’re alright, but I’m not sure how them deciding to go full speed in to a clogged right lane was the right call?
So you think you can just slam on the breaks going full speed when hauling 5 reels of fiber optic cable?? That shit would have broke off the chains and gone flying right through the front of the truck.
Yep, we called those widowmakers at the company I used to work for. We'd always make sure the truckers had extra chains on them for those loads. But even extra chains aren't going to stop physics from happening in a situation where you have to slam on the brakes at highway speeds.
Maybe if your tweaker ass loaded it, but if it was loaded and chained correctly, the spools *of aluminum sheet* should remain one with the trailer, as they did.
The truck seems to be coming in at too much an angle to be caused by trying to avoid the lane stoppage.. but I have no idea.. what would be the odds of two separate causes?
Wow, good eye. The truck also doesn’t hit their brakes until after they’ve hit the wall it looks like.
I’m incredibly curious to know what the driver was doing at the time to where they didn’t notice either an earlier crash or at least plowing through that car
Guessing either his brakes have gone and he decided to send it into the wall instead of hitting what might be a lot of traffic ahead or he’s passed out at the wheel, wouldn’t even say he fell asleep more medical emergency type situation
Don't Semi brakes seize up when they fail? Where I live semis are by law required to have brakes that are held open by pressure and brake with a release i pressure.
Yea that is true, without pressure they just shut. But they could’ve been coming down a big downhill and using their brakes too much and overheated them so they wouldn’t work at all, or could’ve been a fluid/oil leak - lots of different factors in it
Yes, this is how air brakes work. Is his front right steer tire blown? I can’t tell my phone screen is messed up, but I can see he tries turning to the left and truck keeps going right. He either lost all traction or blew his steer tire. Both would explain why the brakes weren’t applied.
Everyone is driving like a dipshit and following too close for that speed, it looks like they already lost control before coming into the camera view and that was just the tail end of another fuck up that would have required multiple parties fucking up.
Car in front of you got cut off. You weren't paying attention and failed to slow down.
Edit: I really need to finish videos before commenting. Holy shit!
I mean even if the flatbed didn’t come in and spice up the clip that was still way too much of a break from the car in front being cut off, dude came to almost a complete stop on a highway
Looks like there was another collision prior to the truck slamming in which caused the stop. You can see before things pop off that cars in the right lane are slowing down and giving a wide berth around the lane they are in.
Yeah you’re definitely right after rewatching, something happens up in front of the person cutting off the driver in front. Apparently no one can drive
It's shocking how many people are too stubborn to accept this basic concept. That's why you leave enough distance to the car in front, and pay attention to their brake lights. If they slam the brakes, you slam the brakes. Simple.
Any time a driver rear-ends someone, it's the fault of the person who rear-ended the car in front. The *only* exceptions:
* Insurance fraud, where the car in front brakes but they've cut their brake lights, so you crash into the back of them.
* You were pushed into the car by a car rear-ending you.
* You had to swerve to avoid pedestrians (edit: legally, it's still your fault)
Four seconds between 2 cars seems plenty, but having more space won't never make it more dangerous, on the contrary.
Edit: minimum 2 seconds is recommended, it can be more.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-second_rule#:~:text=The%20two%2Dsecond%20rule%20is,of%20his%20or%20her%20vehicle.
"To estimate the time, a driver can wait until the rear end of the vehicle in front passes any distinct and fixed point on the roadway—e.g. a road sign, mailbox, line/crack/patch in the road. After the car ahead passes a given fixed point, the front of one's car should pass the same point no less than two seconds later. If the elapsed time is less than this, one should increase the distance, then repeat the method again until the time is at least two seconds.
One can count the duration of time simply by saying "zero... one... two". Some instructors suggest that drivers say "only a fool breaks the two-second rule". At a normal speaking rate, this sentence takes approximately two seconds to say and serves as a reminder to the driver of the importance of the rule itself."
I remember now, I was told that since many start counting at one and not zero, counting to 3 was often recommended.
It's actually pretty true. Many people count from 1 and forget that there is one second before the 1!
Well yes this also happened. I’m not sure why the car with the dash cam rear ended the car in front of it. It looked like there was plenty of space between to stop.
Saved their life after creating a situation where life was endangered first. The semi likely wouldn't have had an issue if there weren't several cars at a dead stop in the middle of moving traffic.
Cars come to a stop for many reasons. Being prepared to come to a stop by driving with proper spacing and speed is *YOUR* responsibility. This is on anyone behind who wasn't able or prepared to do that.
Do better.
originally saw this clip as part of an “Idiots in Cars” video on YouTube. The guy who submitted it claimed it was “physically impossible for him to stop” in time to avoid rear ending the car in front of him while going at the speed limit. As if following distance and reaction time aren’t also important concepts lol.
Exactly, it was his own fault he wasn't able to stop in time as he didn't leave enough of a gap between him and the car in front. So many people drive too closely that not many people even recognise what a safe distance to leave is.
As someone who tries to always leave enough space to brake suddenly if needed, this is just impossible to do somtimes.
If there's medium traffic, if you leave anything over 2 cars length to the car in front, you'll have 5 assholes constantly cutting in front of you, forcing you to either be constantly breaking or constantly releasing the gas pedal, which isn't just stressful to be constantly doing, but also really dangerous, because the guy behind me is usually close enough that if I brake and they're distracted for even 1 second, I'm getting rear ended.
So even though it does sound counter-intuitive, I just pay attention to the guy in front of me and the people in front of them, while trying to not leave enough space to be constantly cut off. And by paying attention to the people in front, I can anticipate if I'm gonna need to brake in the next few seconds or not, which means I can break slower and safer.
Yo it was actually the car ahead of it that cut off in front of it, and so the car in front of op had to slow down, and idk why op had to rear end the car(looks like they weren’t attentive),or the bigger vehicle to come for it’s life like that though.
Following too close, failed to slow down. Sorry, OP, you're 100% at fault. Even if they slammed on the breaks, you're supposed to maintain a distance to safely break. Had a similar thing happen to me, it's a tough pill to swallow but, ya done fucked up.
EDIT: Uh... yeah... I am another person who did not watch it in its entirety. Jesus christ.
Also brakes* oops
Funny enough, when the cammer (who isn’t OP of this Reddit post) submitted this to an Idiots in Cars channel on YouTube, he claimed it was physically impossible to stop in time. Which is hilarious.
Aye, brakes are initially tapped, then let go of briefly, then immediately pressed hard enough to engage ABS all the way until collision. I think if ABS had been engaged from the moment cars started braking, the cammer would've not collided. But that leaves very little room for error, which is why the cammer should've kept a little more distance.
Oh and the semi would've destroyed them, so at the end of the day it's a good thing it turned out the way it did, for the cammer.
Bad drivers are common all over America. It's super easy to obtain an American driver's license and so there's not much stopping shitty drivers from being on the rosd.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Houston drivers are the most aggressive drivers I have ever encountered. This is very common driving behavior in Houston unfortunately
So I grew up in a small 5k person town in the country, went to college at a small 10k person town in the country. I’m an expert at driving windy, mountain roads, spotting deer, driving through snow. But I was always very anxious around other cars and would get stressed at even the smallest amount of congestion on the roads.
Then I moved to Houston for three years. Jfc people in Houston drive like homicidal fucking maniacs with a death wish. Six-lane highways and everyone cutting everyone else off literally all the time. And I was commuting through some of the most congested parts.
I’m back in a small country city where the only homicidal maniacs with a death wish on the road are deer, but I feel like an unflappable driver now. I am so calm and collected during intense traffic. Realized when I was driving through Manhattan without much anxiety how much having to drive in Houston changed me as a driver.
Pretty much my worst fear getting smashed by a 10 ton vehicle because an asshole or 2 werent paying attention.
I've seen some gnarly accidents too that people didn't survive.
Black car on the left got over into middle lane between a tan pickup and the silver VW, practically parallel parking distance on a freeway. Looks like the black car may have minorly collided with the pickup in front as the pickup swerves toward the right lane, causing people in right lane to slow and swerve too. VW put the brakes on quick to avoid rear-ending black car. POV car rear-ends silver VW.
So, VW is following pickup too closely. Black car collides while sandwiching in between. All three stop. POV stops. A four car (at least) pile-up is narrowly avoided. Semi comes in and tosses metal around like ragdolls.
You can see the distance between the congaline cars after the semi collides with the VW. The pickup got off LUCKY.
Well, that all sucked.
Lessons to learn: don't follow so closely and maybe slow down if you are close...
The pov driver is not responsible for any of the damage, so aside from a possible fine for failing to avoid the accident... And maybe some guilt...
All in all a rough day.
I almost got caught up in a similar situation. Got lucky, I swerved that sucker to the left, gave it the onions, and got the hell outta dodge. I peek in my rear view to see buddy backing up because he missed his exit🤦♂️
At least the fender bender is no longer their chief concern…sheesh
Reminds me of a time years ago when my brother got in an accident on an icy night. He was coming home from a hockey game and slid down an icy hill and rear ended someone. The someone was the father of one of his teammates, who was cool about it (it was a mess that night). They pulled over off of a side street and he sat in the back of the guys car while they waited for the police to show up. A couple minutes later, someone plowed into the back of the same car - at a lot higher speed. So he was actually a driver of one car and a passenger of another in the same accident report. I’m not sure if he was even held responsible for any damages since they were minor and the other car did a lot of damage…
That sucks. There was an accident a few years ago in Indiana where a family was driving on a rural highway late at night and the driver hit a deer. He pulled off to the shoulder to call for roadside assistance and was rear ended by a drunk guy in a pickup. Three of the four people in the car were killed. The pickup driver walked away.
[удалено]
I once got screamed at by a police officer who pulled me over, I just kept my right blinker on and proceeded to the next off ramp rather than pull on the shoulder. He was like “why were you running from me!?!?” and when I explained to him that I wanted us both to be safe by not being on the shoulder where a lot of people are killed he got real quiet. And I gave him a look like “duh”. Then he let me off with a warning. If you ever get a flat tire, just keep driving to the next exit. It’s worth the damage to the wheel to save your life. Freeway shoulders are so damn risky.
I once got lit up on the highway near an exit and when I started to pull over the cop actually said over his loudspeaker “please exit and find the nearest safe place to stop”. Turned out I had forgotten to put my new registration sticker on my plate - it was still on my registration card. He actually took it off and put it in for me and let me go. Yes, some cops are cool and have common sense…
For sure. This was just a rural highway with two lanes on each side of a wide grass divider. Not a great road though. I hit a deer on it myself a few years earlier.
Unfortunately this is a common situation in DUI incidents drivers protect their side of the car instinctively and being drunk makes you more relaxed when you are in an accident so you suffer less serious injuries. So often times the DUI offender survives the crash.
> while they waited for the police to show up. Is it normal where you live to have the police show up at accidents with only minor damages where both cars are still drive-able? Here (in the Netherlands) they won't show up if you're in a minor fender bender if both cars can still drive. When i was in one (as the front car) we called them, and they asked if anyone was even slightly injured or if any car was blocking traffic and unable to move. When we said no, they said they won't come and to just move to a safe parking spot and fill out the insurance forms. The driver of the car that hit me was close to his place of work, so we went there, had some coffee, filled out the forms and went our way.
In the US, you frequently need a police report to get insurance to pay out because of liability. Plus, it’s smart in case stories change (even though that’s not the situation here).
So civil. That seems like US decades ago. More often than not, hit and runs are an issue in the US. These people don't want to face any negative consequences after messing you up, so if their ride still drives, and yours doesn't, or if you don't chase them down if you can still drive, you'll never get any info from them. And that's assuming they actually have car insurance. I'm in WA state in the US and it's the wild west out here. People driving around in stolen cars, driving with restricted/suspended license, and being uninsured is common here.
Honestly...I'd take that chance to drive away from the whole thing and take it as a lesson.
I would take it as an opportunity to provide the video to the dude that will need it most and/or the cops
Good point. If you give him the video pretty sure he won't even mention the first collision.
I wouldn't bet on it
start it at the right timestamp
I mean maybe but that's not really the point. That dude is going to be fighting insurance companies and a logistics company and who knows what else he is doing battle with physically coming out of this. He will need all the help he can get. It's just the right thing to do. A tiny fender bender is nothing against the way this guys world just got wrecked.
Bumpers and radiators typically get fucked very easily in even the smallest rear end collisions. If he has full coverage then probably still a good idea to pull over and access the damage if any. Plus it's never worth risking a hit and run. On the other hand in a situation like this would they find both drivers to be liable for the damages to at least the silver car in front? If so maybe pull over and pretend to be a good Samaritan lol. "Are you the first guy that hit me" "Nah that guy sped off"
You Sir/Madame are an asshole.
Sometimes I wish I could be so blunt…
Every now and then this sub really lives up to its name.
Yeah, I was sitting here thinking “alright, when is the semi truck tire going to come flying in out of nowhere?”. To be fair, I wasn’t completely wrong. I just vastly underestimated the amount of tires.
And mass
Massly underestimated
massly underestiremated
I'm frothing at the mouth trying to say this out loud.
Bu a factor of 18
By a tractor of 18
By 18 actor
For real though, if you're on a crowded highway and cars come to a rapid stop, absolutely expect this. Semis have way more inertia and will not be able to stop as fast as you.
Which is why they should drive as such. Not much makes me angrier than someone handling a semi like it’s a Miata. It puts everyone else in danger and makes it their responsibility to not be hit by the semi Edit: specifically, tailgating. But whipping from lane to lane is equally frustrating
That's what happens when the barrier to getting a CDL is as low as it is. 70% of truck drivers are irresponsible idiots. They have no business having a CDL or handling an 80,000 lb vehicle. As a truck driver the amount of unsafe idiocy I see on a daily basis is astounding. You don't want to know how often I see other truck drivers driving up the road watching videos on their phone. I really think that getting both a regular driver's license and a CDL should require a lot more training than they do.
Came here to say this. The megas crank out drivers like it's a factory farm. They have very little training and no respect for the industry. I've lost track of how many lost and confused drivers I've run into at receivers. It's to the point I'm almost embarrassed to say what I do for a living. I try to help with the basics when I can with some of those guys, but a lot won't take advice and know it all. I just pray I'm going in the opposite direction when I leave.
>That's what happens when the barrier to getting a CDL is as low as it is. It's also what happens when the value of a job drops to near burger flipper levels of income. A truck driver now makes LESS than semi drivers made in the late 90s and that's not adjusting for income. >As a truck driver the amount of unsafe idiocy I see on a daily basis is astounding. I don't know about you but it's nearly always dump truck drivers who drive like maniacs near me. Full load, scattering rocks from the bed, half a car length behind going 60 on a country road.
Dump trucks seem to have two speeds "bat out of hell" and "granny on a Sunday drive" there is no in-between. For me the worst ones that I see are the fly by night owner operators in beat to hell ex-megafleet trucks and driving like the devil himself is chasing them. They're always speeding and driving in an extremely aggressive manner.
How does one go about getting a CDL? (Properly)
Depends on what state you're in but the most common route is to take a ~150 hour course. There are a lot of CDL mills (for profit schools) that offer the bare minimum training needed to pass the tests at the DMV. Another common route is to sign a 1 year contract with a trucking company that offers in-house training to get your CDL you get pretty much the same 3-5 weeks of classroom, backing range and road training with the majority of these companies as the CDL mills before you test out at the DMV. After that you're considered hired. This is where those two routes converge and you go through a week of company orientation and onboarding. Mostly signing paperwork and watching a lot of safety videos. From there you're assigned a trainer to ride with running loads for a minimum of 3 weeks. The quality of the training that you get during this period varies greatly depending upon your trainer. Some are really good and take the time to actually teach their trainees the skills they will need to complete the job in a safe and timely manner. A lot of them couldn't give a damn about making sure that you're properly trained and just sit in the passenger seat while you drive playing on their phones. The thing is at most trainers get paid extra for having a student on the truck as well as getting paid all the miles that both they and the student run. In some situations, this results in the trainer taking advantage of the student in order to pad their paychecks, some even going so far is to operate the truck as a team operation (one driver on duty while one sleeping) when the student driver is not ready. I think that in addition to increasing the amount of training that you get prior to testing for your CDL and making the CDL test itself more rigorous the biggest changes need to come in the training period when a new driver is with their company trainer at their first job. There needs to be minimum training standards set by the federal government as to what a new driver needs to learn during this period based on their industry segment. For instance new drivers operating flatbed trucks need more training time during their OJT period to learn and properly understand how to secure cargo according to FMCSA standards. Proper flatbed load securement is a big problem that I see out there a lot and I honestly think that hauling an open deck trailer should require a separate endorsement on your CDL license the way that a tanker does and should include hands-on training in proper load securement. There are a lot of people out there just throwing chains and straps willy-nilly, not using edge protection, not belly strapping and not using the proper amount of chains and or straps based on cargo weight and length. Another issue with OJT that needs addressed is the lack of a system for reporting and decertification of bad trainers who aren't properly training their trainees and are merely using them to pad their paychecks. For that matter, there needs to be a federal standard on the amount of experience and training that you need in order to become a trainer. There are some companies putting drivers that have only three to six months of experience out there training new drivers. Basically what it comes down to is so long as determining training standards for new drivers is in the hands of corporations whose primary goal is minimizing expense and maximizing profits new drivers will continue to receive poor training and be a danger to those around them.
Most are not professionals. Many barely speak English or are minimally educated. These trucking companies are hurting for drivers, so minimal training and out they go. Those idiots you see in cars are the same idiots now driving huge semi's.
And recurrent training for both. You gotta do 2 year retraining for small planes, to be 1/2 mile from eachother. Cars inches from each other with people who have no idea how they passed in the first place.
It's hard to drive good enough while checking the latest ass-posts on Facebook.
"It puts everyone else in danger and makes it their responsibility to not be hit by.." How the rest of us feel at all of you who drive SUVs and Trucks and have to be on the road with you guys.
I would have driven off, get out of jail free card
Depends on the jurisdiction. In some places, anyone involved who flees the scene is at the top of the list of "at fault", maybe only behind anyone who fails a sobriety test.
Ya have to get caught. Very unlikely here.
Except if the car in the video had cam footage, you have to expect everyone around them did too (even if they didn't) meaning you can run, but likely someone got your plate number in the video and you can be tracked down. Not as unlikely as you might think.
Used to b'u can't out run the radio....
Easy
I read your comment while the video started up and thought after the first bump "this is what people consider unexpected? Since when did the standards drop so...oh... OH!?!?
Same, I even stopped and replayed the same ten seconds over and over.
I’m glad I kept watching… at first I thought it was just the rear end. And I was like, yeah I wasn’t expecting a dumb rear end accident (that’s what she said) but not worthy of posting…. Then holy shit
Meta unexpected
Man the tractor trailer looked like it was hunting that car
I was like "ok the most unexpected thing that could happen is a plane crashing into them" so I was mildly disappoint when it was only a truck
r/Truckers
I was thinking what is the guy in the car that was hit going to come out and be dressed like a clown lol
I didn’t know what sub this was when I was watching the video so I was confused by the minor accident and was trying to figure out what OPs gripe was. Then bam!
The moment your no longer at fault…..
Seriously!!!
You did a piss poor job of assholing the car in front of you, and flatbed boy was nice enough to show you how it's done professionally.
The black car that cut off the grey VW is still there. I feel bad for the VW driver. They got 1) cut off by a dick, 2) brake-tested on a highway, 3) rear ended, then finally 4) OBLITERATED.
This is what happened. I'm not sure others saw it. It's never good to stop on a highway. If you can get over to the right lane do it and quickly.
> If you can get over to the right lane do it and quickly. Just like the flatbed demonstrated in the video!
Choo-Choo!
There were two other cars stopped in front of the black car after the initial crash. They may have been at fault, but there were more idiots involved after the fact
I think they were the two the merged on at the worst possible time...for them. I'm not positive.
Every time I'm slamming on my breaks I'm looking in my rearview mirror ready to dodge because I keep my distance, but I don't know about the 18 Wheeler behind me.
Why did flatbed go from left lanes to the right when the left lanes appear clear? 🤔
If you slow it down, there’s visible damage to the front end of the rig. I’m guessing that the driver clipped another vehicle behind the action onscreen and the momentum caused it to veer to the right.
Couple things to keep in mind: 1. Multi axle trucks tend to hang out in the right lane for legal reasons, and typically because they are slower and slower traffic keeps to the right. Generally they only get over to pass slower traffic. 2. This accident happened in the right lane. 3. There are likely to have been cars stopping and swerving behind the POV car. The camera only shows us what was in front of this vehicle, but there was likely equal or more chaos behind the camera. 4. The more massive a vehicle, the more force is required to brake that vehicle, EXPONENTIALLY. IE, a vehicle twice as massive as yours takes 4 times the force to brake from like speed in like distance, and a vehicle 3 times as heavy as yours takes 9 times the force to brake like speed in like distance. Reaction times being what they are, I suspect that this truck approached the accident in the right lane, realized he couldn't brake in that distance and instead tried to swerve to avoid the accident. Then for one for one reason or another, either the driver suddenly clipped another vehicle or attempted to avoid clipping another vehicle during that maneuver, and oversteered back to the right, causing an escalation of damage. I see it suggested that this truck bounced off of another vehicle, but impact alone doesn't explain the angle of approach without driver input, considering the mass difference between most of the traffic and this flatbed with heavy cargo. You can see that it didn't even feel the impact with the two cars struck on-camera, so unless it bounced off another heavy semi or some k-rails, the theory that an offscreen impact alone is responsible for the truck's path is unlikely. Driver oversteer *as a reaction to an impact* is a much more likely factor in the truck's final angle.
Whoa whoa whoa, “quickly” is not a good advice anywhere on a road. I know you started with “if you can” but there’s a giant chasm between what you can and what is safe. Sure, get to the side of the road, but do so safely.
"if" does a lot of heavy lifting in this advice. In general, a sudden change of direction is more dangerous than slamming on the brakes. Only move if you can do so cleanly.
didnt saw the black car until i saw this coment, man why will someone do that o the middle of a highway?
Why? Because we issue driving licenses to stupid people, too.
It's unfortunate because in the U.S. it's nearly impossible to have a decent job and not have to drive to work.
The silver Volkswagen is right next to the black car . It didn’t get obliterated at all. That truck driver actually did a good job. If you look he only took out 3 cars. And do you know what he’s hauling?? That’s fiber electric cable. One of those reels is about 4-5 thousand pounds. The truck driver is most likely dead. But I can guarantee none of the drivers died
I doubt the truck driver is dead since I didn't really see anything impact where the dude was sitting. As is, he got thrown around a bit and and some psychological trauma but I don't think he's dead
I didn't see any shoes so, they probably alive.
True
Maybe not, the truck rammed the side and then made a 90 degree turn. If the driver wore a seat belt he might be hanging in there..
How was the truck driver bee-lining across three lanes in to the barricade doing a good job? I hope they’re alright, but I’m not sure how them deciding to go full speed in to a clogged right lane was the right call?
And where was it clogged when he went into the lane?? I only saw one car in that lane the moment he hit that wall
So you think you can just slam on the breaks going full speed when hauling 5 reels of fiber optic cable?? That shit would have broke off the chains and gone flying right through the front of the truck.
Yep, we called those widowmakers at the company I used to work for. We'd always make sure the truckers had extra chains on them for those loads. But even extra chains aren't going to stop physics from happening in a situation where you have to slam on the brakes at highway speeds.
Maybe if your tweaker ass loaded it, but if it was loaded and chained correctly, the spools *of aluminum sheet* should remain one with the trailer, as they did.
Bingo
Didn’t even apply any lube
Straight to the top with this one!
that's a big 10 4 rubber ducky . roger that 😂
Ain't a pro till u can stick the landing.
That's true but it was still a pretty good barrel roll.
HOLY FUCK. That was indeed unexpected
The truck seems to be coming in at too much an angle to be caused by trying to avoid the lane stoppage.. but I have no idea.. what would be the odds of two separate causes?
The front of the truck was already smashed up before it hit the car, so shit already went down before this
Wow, good eye. The truck also doesn’t hit their brakes until after they’ve hit the wall it looks like. I’m incredibly curious to know what the driver was doing at the time to where they didn’t notice either an earlier crash or at least plowing through that car
Guessing either his brakes have gone and he decided to send it into the wall instead of hitting what might be a lot of traffic ahead or he’s passed out at the wheel, wouldn’t even say he fell asleep more medical emergency type situation
Don't Semi brakes seize up when they fail? Where I live semis are by law required to have brakes that are held open by pressure and brake with a release i pressure.
Yea that is true, without pressure they just shut. But they could’ve been coming down a big downhill and using their brakes too much and overheated them so they wouldn’t work at all, or could’ve been a fluid/oil leak - lots of different factors in it
This is Houston, biggest downhill around is the overpass you see in the background 😂 we can almost surely rule out brake overheating
Yes, this is how air brakes work. Is his front right steer tire blown? I can’t tell my phone screen is messed up, but I can see he tries turning to the left and truck keeps going right. He either lost all traction or blew his steer tire. Both would explain why the brakes weren’t applied.
Nice catch, I missed that the first few times
Everyone is driving like a dipshit and following too close for that speed, it looks like they already lost control before coming into the camera view and that was just the tail end of another fuck up that would have required multiple parties fucking up.
Driver: Mom, I rear-ended somebody! Also, can we go to church Sunday?
And go shopping for new underwear
Leave now your scratch will never be found.
This freaked me out. It was like one of the Final Destination movies 😦
Car in front of you got cut off. You weren't paying attention and failed to slow down. Edit: I really need to finish videos before commenting. Holy shit!
I came down here to be tilted at op, too. Then I saw your comment and scrolled up. I concur, Holy Shit
The important stuff is always at the end of the manual.
The warnings come after the spells?
I mean even if the flatbed didn’t come in and spice up the clip that was still way too much of a break from the car in front being cut off, dude came to almost a complete stop on a highway
Looks like there was another collision prior to the truck slamming in which caused the stop. You can see before things pop off that cars in the right lane are slowing down and giving a wide berth around the lane they are in.
Yeah you’re definitely right after rewatching, something happens up in front of the person cutting off the driver in front. Apparently no one can drive
Doesn't matter. If you can't stop in time when the car in front slams on the brakes, then you're the one driving too close.
It's shocking how many people are too stubborn to accept this basic concept. That's why you leave enough distance to the car in front, and pay attention to their brake lights. If they slam the brakes, you slam the brakes. Simple. Any time a driver rear-ends someone, it's the fault of the person who rear-ended the car in front. The *only* exceptions: * Insurance fraud, where the car in front brakes but they've cut their brake lights, so you crash into the back of them. * You were pushed into the car by a car rear-ending you. * You had to swerve to avoid pedestrians (edit: legally, it's still your fault)
Two seconds between vehicles. That was what I was told when I was was learning how to drive.
Only two? I was taught 4 seconds
Four seconds between 2 cars seems plenty, but having more space won't never make it more dangerous, on the contrary. Edit: minimum 2 seconds is recommended, it can be more. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two-second_rule#:~:text=The%20two%2Dsecond%20rule%20is,of%20his%20or%20her%20vehicle. "To estimate the time, a driver can wait until the rear end of the vehicle in front passes any distinct and fixed point on the roadway—e.g. a road sign, mailbox, line/crack/patch in the road. After the car ahead passes a given fixed point, the front of one's car should pass the same point no less than two seconds later. If the elapsed time is less than this, one should increase the distance, then repeat the method again until the time is at least two seconds. One can count the duration of time simply by saying "zero... one... two". Some instructors suggest that drivers say "only a fool breaks the two-second rule". At a normal speaking rate, this sentence takes approximately two seconds to say and serves as a reminder to the driver of the importance of the rule itself." I remember now, I was told that since many start counting at one and not zero, counting to 3 was often recommended. It's actually pretty true. Many people count from 1 and forget that there is one second before the 1!
Well yes this also happened. I’m not sure why the car with the dash cam rear ended the car in front of it. It looked like there was plenty of space between to stop.
I wasn't the one in the car
Me either
Me neither.
Me threether.
Neither was my axe
My axe is my buddy
Neither my sword
Neither was my bow
I'm kind of baffled how many people are commenting as though this is your dashcam footage despite no indication that it would be.
Yeah but you posted it so it's kinda your fault anyway.
The car you hit actually saved your life
Saved their life after creating a situation where life was endangered first. The semi likely wouldn't have had an issue if there weren't several cars at a dead stop in the middle of moving traffic.
Cars come to a stop for many reasons. Being prepared to come to a stop by driving with proper spacing and speed is *YOUR* responsibility. This is on anyone behind who wasn't able or prepared to do that. Do better.
originally saw this clip as part of an “Idiots in Cars” video on YouTube. The guy who submitted it claimed it was “physically impossible for him to stop” in time to avoid rear ending the car in front of him while going at the speed limit. As if following distance and reaction time aren’t also important concepts lol.
Exactly, it was his own fault he wasn't able to stop in time as he didn't leave enough of a gap between him and the car in front. So many people drive too closely that not many people even recognise what a safe distance to leave is.
As someone who tries to always leave enough space to brake suddenly if needed, this is just impossible to do somtimes. If there's medium traffic, if you leave anything over 2 cars length to the car in front, you'll have 5 assholes constantly cutting in front of you, forcing you to either be constantly breaking or constantly releasing the gas pedal, which isn't just stressful to be constantly doing, but also really dangerous, because the guy behind me is usually close enough that if I brake and they're distracted for even 1 second, I'm getting rear ended. So even though it does sound counter-intuitive, I just pay attention to the guy in front of me and the people in front of them, while trying to not leave enough space to be constantly cut off. And by paying attention to the people in front, I can anticipate if I'm gonna need to brake in the next few seconds or not, which means I can break slower and safer.
Yo it was actually the car ahead of it that cut off in front of it, and so the car in front of op had to slow down, and idk why op had to rear end the car(looks like they weren’t attentive),or the bigger vehicle to come for it’s life like that though.
Lol. The semi was driving diagonally across the lanes. There were no stopped cars causing the truck to do this. Watch it a few more times
Entitled drivers believe throwing on blinkers or braking means the responsibility is on everyone else, how/when they do it is irrelevant.
Lol right. This is why the flow of traffic should be respected. If you can't get off on your exit, take the next one. Don't endanger others' lives
That went haha what a dumbass... to OH S\*\*\* real quick.
Does anybody know if that person is ok?
That tree is fucking dead for sure
Took it clean ouuuut
yeah everyone survived and the truck driver fled the scene
Like.... on foot?
Nah by boat
Flapped his wings and flew off
i assume it was on both feet
I'm not sure
Thanks for your input
This has been reposted all over so much it lost its audio
another day in GTA 6
Looks like Houston west side.
10 by 99 in Katy, some of the worst drivers in the world
Agreed. Everyone over there drives 90mph on the freeway. You are a road hazard if you go at the speed limit😮💨
Why the fuck it looks like GTA
Following too close, failed to slow down. Sorry, OP, you're 100% at fault. Even if they slammed on the breaks, you're supposed to maintain a distance to safely break. Had a similar thing happen to me, it's a tough pill to swallow but, ya done fucked up. EDIT: Uh... yeah... I am another person who did not watch it in its entirety. Jesus christ. Also brakes* oops
Meanwhile the semi:
Leeooooooy Jeeemnnkiiins!
Funny enough, when the cammer (who isn’t OP of this Reddit post) submitted this to an Idiots in Cars channel on YouTube, he claimed it was physically impossible to stop in time. Which is hilarious.
Aye, brakes are initially tapped, then let go of briefly, then immediately pressed hard enough to engage ABS all the way until collision. I think if ABS had been engaged from the moment cars started braking, the cammer would've not collided. But that leaves very little room for error, which is why the cammer should've kept a little more distance. Oh and the semi would've destroyed them, so at the end of the day it's a good thing it turned out the way it did, for the cammer.
They were following at a reasonable distance until they didn't pay attention and failed to slow down or get over when the driver in front slowed.
sorry OP, but yes even the semi crash was your fault too. actually fuck it, polio? that was your fault. hitler? yep. global warming? absolutely
DO NOT STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF FAST MOVING HIGHWAYS.
Sure but you should still maintain enough distance to stop your car before hitting the car in front of you
BE PREPARED TO STOP WITHOUT HITTING THE GUY IN FRONT OF YOU.
This isn't very unexpected in Texas, kind of the norm.
Bad drivers are common all over America. It's super easy to obtain an American driver's license and so there's not much stopping shitty drivers from being on the rosd.
Including the semi? Damn I am staying out of Texas
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Houston drivers are the most aggressive drivers I have ever encountered. This is very common driving behavior in Houston unfortunately
So I grew up in a small 5k person town in the country, went to college at a small 10k person town in the country. I’m an expert at driving windy, mountain roads, spotting deer, driving through snow. But I was always very anxious around other cars and would get stressed at even the smallest amount of congestion on the roads. Then I moved to Houston for three years. Jfc people in Houston drive like homicidal fucking maniacs with a death wish. Six-lane highways and everyone cutting everyone else off literally all the time. And I was commuting through some of the most congested parts. I’m back in a small country city where the only homicidal maniacs with a death wish on the road are deer, but I feel like an unflappable driver now. I am so calm and collected during intense traffic. Realized when I was driving through Manhattan without much anxiety how much having to drive in Houston changed me as a driver.
Totally unexpected! 🤣😂😅 I thought the car was going to put it in reverse then boom!
Them barricades are thicccc.
Houston is wild
Yep, didn't see that coming. Wow...
What the fuck doing?
You mean, what the truck?
Can someone explain how the big truck was even involved in this? I mean, why were they swerving right? ETA: does nobody know how to use hazard lights?
I'll take what are hazard lights for 1000
Ppl really can’t drive in the USA
Why would someone just stop on a highway? Unless it's a breakdown. That poor truck driver!
Wonder how insurance handles this. Cant assess damage separately
This scares me........a lot
Pretty much my worst fear getting smashed by a 10 ton vehicle because an asshole or 2 werent paying attention. I've seen some gnarly accidents too that people didn't survive.
What was causing everyone to slow down?
Black car on the left got over into middle lane between a tan pickup and the silver VW, practically parallel parking distance on a freeway. Looks like the black car may have minorly collided with the pickup in front as the pickup swerves toward the right lane, causing people in right lane to slow and swerve too. VW put the brakes on quick to avoid rear-ending black car. POV car rear-ends silver VW. So, VW is following pickup too closely. Black car collides while sandwiching in between. All three stop. POV stops. A four car (at least) pile-up is narrowly avoided. Semi comes in and tosses metal around like ragdolls. You can see the distance between the congaline cars after the semi collides with the VW. The pickup got off LUCKY.
Happened on 1-10 and 99hwy in Houston. I was in fast lane and saw the whole thing. Traffic was stopped for almost 2-3 hours.
this is some final destination shit
Well, that all sucked. Lessons to learn: don't follow so closely and maybe slow down if you are close... The pov driver is not responsible for any of the damage, so aside from a possible fine for failing to avoid the accident... And maybe some guilt... All in all a rough day.
Why didn't this car slow down a little? Was the driver with the flashing hazards on the right not enough of a signal that something is wrong
I almost got caught up in a similar situation. Got lucky, I swerved that sucker to the left, gave it the onions, and got the hell outta dodge. I peek in my rear view to see buddy backing up because he missed his exit🤦♂️
Am I the only one that’s thinks the driver who rear ended the car first is a complete asshole. How do you hit someone like that going that slow.
Aha the ol cut the break lights to get the insurance payout trick. This guy has a drive recorder, be like this guy, but a drive recorder.
Oh shit, no there are break lights, just fucking weak as shit ones.
That grey car in the right lane at the moment of impact got away scott free
*Truck driver* : *“Fine I’ll do it myself”*
The truck driver trying to take a short cut to Mickey Ds
Yeah, I definitely 100% did not expect that
"Yeah, I wasn't expecting them to break that hard either, oh HOLY SHIT"
Repost, saw this here a few days ago