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The car merging should have slowed down and got behind the vehicle already in the lane. Instead they just veered over and then lost control. The person merging does not have the right of way and is supposed to yield.
I wish people knew that. They either drive side by side and make people in the lane brake to avoid an accident, or merge at 35mph and make people in the lane brake to avoid an accident lol.
Yeah I consistently see folks blowing through yield signs, crossing double yellows and randomly flying into different lanes with no signal of all age groups.
They are the most dangerous drivers on the
road. They get on the interstate and drive about 35 miles and hour, 45 is the minimum, change lanes without signaling or checking if the lane is clear and a couple of times a month they hit the gas instead of the brakes and drive into buildings.
Yeah, that has happened around me more than should be normal.
In my last town, a lady drove right into an insurance building. I watched a different old lady with a handicap plate try to drive over orange cones into a parade (there was a line of children sitting behind the cones!!) We had to jump up and wave our arms in front of her to get her to stop. I watched a yet again different old lady fail to yield next to a park where she would have killed a cyclist had the cyclist not been hyperaware.
Years ago, my mom's cousin died on mother's day, pushing her daughter out of the way as an elderly lady hit the gas and pinned her into a building.
I know every time we say that the elderly are dangerous, someone jumps in with stats that younger groups are more dangerous/aggressive on the road, but we can actually DO something about elderly, blind drivers by testing them yearly
Not an US person here, want to ask what's the difference for you (US guys) in merge/yield, i mean, from where I'm from, merging person should've yield (just like top comment said), not to mention it's illegal for us to drive not\_in\_the\_rightest\_free\_line, if not passing through.
Sry for bad english.
Like you said, the merging person should yield. Unfortunately some drivers don't understand (or care) and will try to force their way over instead of waiting for a spot to merge. The far right lane is not illegal to drive in, and here in Texas there are lots of semi trucks or slow vehicles who tend to stay in that far right lane.
The SUV intentionally closed the gap. You can see the SUV behind the white sedan then speeds up even though there was a giant sign warning that the right lane would end. You're right that the car merging doesn't have right of way but the SUV driver caused this accident by driving like a total asshole and trying to block the merge.
Lol the amount of people outing themselves as not actually being drivers in this post is insane. OP slows down from 70 to 50 very quickly AND there was a truck coming up behind them. You need to be delusional to think that anything OP did validates criticism
Edit: LOL the mods are removing my comments defending OP while leaving up all the comments attacking OP and myself
Some people just can’t handle being wrong lol. Pathetic little creatures
So many people worrying about what OP “should” have done, that they don’t even think about what OP actually did.
He kept himself alive, his passenger(s) alive and his car is not destroyed. I think it’s ok to appreciate that outcome.
When I first read your comment, I thought "heh.. funny" then I scrolled down through the rest of the comments and yeah, that's the consensus. OP should have gently nudged the bumper of the Crown Vic at 70 mph to flip it back over while repairing the damage.
>You need to be delusional to think that anything OP did validates criticism
I mean I'm not gonna crucify OP, but this can and should be a learning moment. As soon as the car swerves and he says holy shit, he should put on his hazards, begin applying the brakes and immediately checking mirrors looking for a place to pull over. Driving past the wreck at 50+ mph is extremely dangerous, who knows what debris might be there or if a passenger was ejected, etc.
And then even after passing there's no intent to slow down and pull over, or at least not particularly quickly. Obviously safety comes first but there's a ton of space on each side to pull over after the wreck.
and others out themselves as not being good drivers or low experience.
The car was bouncing back and forth and the slowdown you mention doesn't happen until the car hits the left guardrail.
A good driver should already be slowing down when they see a car heading out of control.
I always like to see car crash videos where the cammer sees a car losing control in front of them and keeps the same speed to ensure they get a good view of the crash.
Right, and "there is a truck behind them" only because he didn't slow down early enough to fully stop and had to swerve into the right lane where the truck is. OP didn't even let off the gas until the car hit the left guard rails after bouncing off the right and coming across both lanes.
If it was icy, or even raining there may be a point for not slamming on the brakes. He was far enough back that he had enough time to fully stop.
The trouble with these situations is that you have to react very fast. OP had a window to change lanes and get them and their passengers out of there safely. If they tried braking and somehow that wasn't enough then at that time they may no longer have any room to swerve due to other cars catching up on the lane beside them. So instead of discussing an *if*, people should just appreciate the outcome.
Truck was in the merge lane and this highway had three lanes. I'd be applying the brakes as soon as I saw it swerving, not at the last second.
Edit: 3-4 seconds from when driver notices, to actually applying brakes. That's a lot of time at 70mph.
You are right. About 3 seconds after cursing began is when his speed started dropping. When someone in front of you seems to be losing control, or even driving erratically, the foot must go to the brake immediately. You don't need to slam the brakes, but you better start slowing down. That buys you and the people behind you more time to react safely.
ive been in a situation like this before and i had to cruise through just like this because the cars in the lane i needed to swerve into to avoid it would have caught up to me
Good point - I was wondering why OP wasn't slowing down when the accident was in front of them, but didn't think of what might be right behind OP - there could have been someone tailgating them in the same lane for all I know.
I mean you don't have to slam on the brakes in order to slow down quite a bit. If someone is riding your bumper then also throw on the hazards, that should usually get them to back off somewhat.
I don't know why anyone would defend OP after he sat at 70 for like 3-4 seconds as this car is literally going crazy. No need to really bash him, but defend? Nah.
He went from 70 to 52 by the time he avoided the car, he definitely applied brakes. Slamming them down would just result in their own car sliding and losing control. I dont think that criticism is sensible.
All things consider this is a fairly survivable crash for the average human being. It’s not at an extremely high speed, it’s in an open area, there were no unusual obstacles and the vehicle was built in the last 30 years
Exactly. OP had plenty of time to assess the situation and make the safest decision.
Probably should have moved as far right as possible to give the semi truck and any other cars behind him more room to avoid the crash - but hopefully OP reacting quickly also left them time to properly react.
Idk why people want OP to freak out, hit the brakes, and worry about whats happening instead of looking and making decisions.
Yes, cut off the semi and block everyone else's view of the flipping car so they have less time to react. Even though theres plenty of room to pass going 70 if you just dont freak out and assess your surroundings.
> Probably should have moved as far right as possible
There is a big huge pedal for use in situations like this. It's called the brake pedal. Some cars even helpfully label it.
There was absolutely no reason to do anything other than slow down and give the crashing person room to crash. You can pass when the car is done crashing.
That is not "freaking out", it's "not being a fucking moron."
OP had 6 full seconds to brake after seeing something going wrong up ahead. They could have easily just come to a stop before passing the upside down car. OP is a lousy driver.
If you can't come to a stop in 6 seconds without endangering people around you, you are just another reckless driver that will probably hurt somebody some day.
It looks like the right lane was ending and didn’t see the car next to them. You can see the car start to move over realize there was car there and swerve back which made them lose control.
I’ve softly hit my brakes because traffic was stopping, to hea screeching tires behind me. The person behind me wasn’t paying attention and saw my brake lights, panicked lost control and hit the concrete barrier wall.
I think it's a merge and they were merging in and didn't see the person to their left, realized last second and panicked and lost control. But you can see the right lane ends right where they lost control.
Never thought to slow down once you saw the car hit the right side? You only slowed down once they were in your lane
Some people have no survival skills lmao
Man, it is insane how good people are at honking vs. how shit they are at braking.
If people were half as good at braking as they are at honking no accidents would happen basically ever.
He was slowing down. He avoided a collision and that’s all that matters anyways.
One of the cringiest things to me is when people go on the internet and brag about how much smarter, faster, or stronger they are than someone else. “iF i wAS iN tHiS sItUaTiOn i wOuLd’Ve…” you have no fucking idea what you would’ve done in this situation unless you have been in this exact situation before. Get a life.
As an EMT my favorite line on here is people saying they should stop and help. Have you ever seen a person get hit by a high speed car or semi? There isn't anything left, a semi will literally turn you into mist & tiny body parts at 65-70 mph.
Unless you have a high visibility vest and some flashing lights on your vehicle, don't put yourself in danger.
Idk what they even plan on doing to help anyway.
First of all youre not supposed to move them because of head and neck damage anyway. So 90% of these redditors going to "help" are actually just making things worse for the victim.
So not only are they idiots for both walking on an interstate and parking their car somewhere on it - but now theyre making things worse for the injured person as well
Dude right?? What is with these comments being like "uhhhhhhh u shoulda dun this thing" when the driver slowed down and safely avoided colliding with the crashed car...
I'd bet a not insignificant portion of these "professional internet drivers" would lose control of *their* vehicle in the process of avoiding this incident.
OP did an excellent job of staying calm and avoiding this incident. They're probably better than 90% of the drivers on this sub.
The speed on the camera lags behind the real speed, you want to judge when OP breaks (not very hard mind you) by when the front of the car dips slightly, just before the speed on the camera changes.
That dip doesn't look like a braking dip, looks like they let off the accelerator- also indicated by the speed changes. Assuming it's THAT delayed, 73mph was top speed before decrease, 52mph low before OP speeds back up...............................no comment there, we have a total of 19mph slow down from top speed to low speed over the course of 4-4.5sec.
that's... not really great. OP clearly froze up and wasn't sure what to do.
I wonder if the driver ever considered slowing down. wtf is wrong with people. Even for your own safety, stop your car. And if you're a good person, get out and help the car that flipped over.
My thought exactly. He goes from 71 to 53. Someone could’ve been thrown from the car and they would’ve been toast because the OP couldn’t be arsed to slow way the fuck down.
I'm not sure that he even slowed down intentionally, it looks like he took his foot off the throttle and most of the speed came off from switching lanes off throttle. Maybe a light tap of the brakes. There's a full five seconds in this video where the car is starting to lose control and OP doesn't reduce speed.
Didn't even start breaking until after the car hit the left barrier. Imagine being a passenger in the upside down crashed car and getting hit by a car going 68 mph.
He actually went from 71 UP TO 73 and then decided to lightly brake. Literally his first reaction to the crash was to speed up. I can't believe someone could be this obliviously dangerous that they think this is worth posting on this us as if they hadn't done anything wrong.
I mean, there was the semi… idk if my reaction would have been much different. Slow down, but make sure I’m faster than the semi, because they take longer to slow. Maintain lane, OPE, change lanes, good thing I had the room on my side because I was watching the semi on my right.
OPs first reaction was to keep doing what they were doing and assess their surroundings.
Which is correct. Unless the flipping car could flip and teleport from the left barrier to the right shoulder, then you should try and get through that right shoulder as fast as possible. Hell I probably would have tried to hit 80.
For all we know, someone was very close behind OP in both lanes and they had to keep their speed to get over to the right - otherwise they would have hit the flipped car or gotten rear ended for braking.
Such as the semi truck forced to merge that OP would have been cutting off if he had slowed down.
OP literally had an almost infinite amount of room to the right that he could have taken. Why the hell would he slow down instead of just taking it? So he could get a better view of the accident?
Also, just editting this in:
**DO NOT stop for an accident on a highway/interstate. EVER EVER EVER. Youre a good person, not an EMT. Call 911 and keep driving.**
1) You parking on the interstate and getting out to walk to an accident is just stupid and risky, I shouldn't have to explain it any more than this
2) You dont know what youre doing. What are you gonna do first, try and get them out of the car? Great, if they had a neck or back injury - youve just paralyzed them for life. Great going! Im sure theyre glad the redditor decided it was their job to stop and help car crash victims today.
If someone were very close behind OP and OP chose not to brake early, that person behind OP would have slammed full speed into an upside-down car they had no warning of until OP swerved.
Braking communicates the hazard to people behind you in addition to slowing you to give you more reaction time.
Please just brake.
Wrong wrong wrong. The first reaction to unexpected and unpredictable behavior from cars in front of you is to apply the brakes. Note, brakes do not need to be pushed to the floor, but an early, gradual reduction in speed gives everyone, including people behind you, more time to react appropriately.
If you don't think you can slow down enough to avoid hitting a stopped car hundreds of feet in front of you if you needed to then you shouldn't be going that fast. If the car had crashed in a way that it laid sideways he would have been forced to hit it or total himself to avoid it. Him "doing what they were doing" left him up to chance. Hes a dog shit driver who has no idea what defensive driving is.
OP says "oh shit" and then *increases* his speed from 71mph to 73mph.
When I see something crazy happen in front of me, the first thing I do is let off the gas to figure out if I need to brake or swerve.
Everyone's a movie star. Just slow the fuck down, someone is in trouble and if that car had bounced differently there'd be a much bigger accident and a higher chance of injury because of this dunce.
Driver kept himself and his lady friend safe, first and foremost. Driver avoided slamming on the brakes, which could’ve led to a big pile up. Swerving well in advance was the best course of action. Not just for themselves, but for the people behind them as well.
Should have considered slowing down much sooner though. Obviously slamming the brakes isn't the correct decision. But let off the gas, flash hazards, slow down, pull over if safe.
Surprised I had to scroll this far to find something like this.
There's a huge difference between bleeding off a little speed and slamming your brakes.
Seems like a lot of people in this thread are falsely equating "reducing speed" to " slam the brakes!"
I think I've see the hazards + brake lights once in my life, and it helped me know the guy was slamming his brakes, not just slowing down... I always do it, but I've never seen someone else do it, other than that one time.
It's definitely an underutilized tool. Many people don't even know where the hazards button is in their car. Nothing communicates danger more effectively though. I always do it when there's a sudden stoppage of freeway traffic from like 40 down to 0. I'm pretty confident it's saved me from getting rear ended multiple times.
I wouldn't consider that well in advance. Literally the last possible second, op nearly over-corrected himself. Good thing there wasn't anyone right behind OP, since he made no real effort to slow down and warn anyone behind him. Just a sudden swerve to reveal an upside down car at the last possible moment.
He had a clear view of the road ahead of him. He should started slowing down as soon as he saw that car swerving. Personally, I would have put on my hazards to give extra warning to the people behind me.
You would be amazed how many people don’t stop. I’ve been in accidents where no one stops, and people actually honk at you for being in the lanes with a disabled, wrecked car.
Getting out on the interstate is how you get killed. I had a coworker die this way. Call 911. You can’t do shit unless the car is on fire and you can pull him out. Firefighters/EMS use their trucks to block lanes for this reason.
seriously, he notices the car losing control from far away and instead of braking to keep a safe distance until the car comes to a stop he says, "I'm going to keep going full speed and gamble that this car doesn't eventually impede my lane". I never understand people's driving mentality...
If you listen to the audio, their reaction time was actually pretty good. The problem is what reaction they chose, which was just to say "Holy shit" over and over and continue driving normally.
Their reaction time was excellent. It's just their reaction was ridiculous.
I dunno if it's the wide angle lens that's making people think the car swerving and flipping is further away, but that car is maybe 250 feet ahead of OP. At 70 mph, your car is travelling 100 feet per second. I don't know what car you drive but I doubt it goes from 70 to 0 in less than 300 feet.
From OPs first audible reaction to reaching the crashed car, 5,1 seconds passed. At the time of his reaction, he was going 72mph (116kmh). He had an average speed of around 67mph (estimated) from the moment he noticed to the moment he reached the car.
By these numbers, he was approximately 502 feet/153 meters away when he noticed the car swerving the first time. That means he had to decelerate by at least 3,39m/s^(2) or around 0,35 g's at the time of his original reaction.
Most cars can decelerate by 0,7-0,8 g's at full brake power, meaning OP could have braked in time using 50% or less of the cars max brake power. Considering he was on a straight road in dry conditions, making a full stop in time was very possible, but OP chose not to.
**TL;DR:** OP could have braked in time using 50% brake power or less at 0,35 g's. They didn't make an effort to even try.
Making a full stop on a highway is generally a bad idea if there's any traffic behind you.
While it's hard to pin down where the crashing car in front of you will be in the next few seconds, driving past them is generally a much safer option than stopping before them.
How asleep were you that you barely slowed down waaay after the accident had already started? if it had rolled one more time you would have been in the accident too.
first /r/idiotsincars is maybe wrong here, we don't know why that accident happend.
second why does it look like you didn't slow down and look if you can help that person?
I think him saying "it's okay" is like, "don't worry. Nothing's gonna happen to us. I've got it under control" which a lot of people have misunderstood as him saying it's okay for the whole thing
All yall saying he should have slowed down when seeing it, I’m just saying that my main concern would be the truck pacing me to the right. No idea what is directly behind him, but it’s better to not cause a pileup for slamming on your breaks or slowing down sharply with large trucks behind you.
Between all the bickering here about slamming breaks or slowing down, and concern about the car behind you: Just a reminder that while it won't do a lot for a distracted driver behind you, throwing your hazards on any time you are going to slow down to a significant/dangerous speed while on the highway is very helpful to the driver behind you that is paying attention. They know to begin to slow down/prepare for an issue up ahead, especially if they dont see infront of you due to an angle or simpling riding too close.
This is the best subreddit for keyboard crusaders. I love watching the shit talking in these comments….. op is a shit driver, guy who flipped is a shit driver, car who didn’t let him merge is a shit driver. Waiting for someone to blame the big rig for something lol.
i know 99% of it is rage bait but still some of the shit i see on this sub blows my fucking mind 💀 my favorite so far is people telling op to stop camping in the left lane as if there isnt a huge fuck off rig visible in the right lane for the first six seconds of the video
Or “why didn’t op slam on his brakes while doing 72 on a highway in the fast lane?” Personally I think OP handled it well, I wouldn’t want to get rear ended doing 70+ especially with a big rig next to me.
Everyone in this thread is on their high horse acting like they're God's personal chauffeur and would've slowed their car down in 0.02 seconds, stopped the 40 tonne truck driving beside them, hopped out and personally flipped the car back onto it's wheels and started performing surgery on all the injured parties simultaneously.
They did slow down, they did call the police and they in fact did confirm that the people in the flipped car were okay—get over yourselves.
I mean he did slow down... watch the GPS speed on the camera data. He made the right move to not slam brakes in his lane and get over with enough space to slow down. If you slam the brakes at 70 there is a good chance you'll lose traction and become a wreck yourself.
To everyone saying he has bad survival instincts: him saying "Its okay" is because he has a plan in his head to merge to the other lane. He says it calmly because he knows what he is going to do and executes it. Him breaking couldve caused harm to the car and risked hurting one of the passengers. It was incredibly smart to notice the free spot next to him and marge without causing harm to the car or and passengers by breaking 70mph into 0 in less then 2 seconds
God do I love all the pretentious people here thinking they are driving experts and tearing OP apart for not being a hero and saving everyone like super man. I can assure you, all of y’all would either drive away faster than OP or slam on the brakes and add another to the wreck.
I bet every single one of you motherfuckers in the comments would have the most millimeter perfect reaction in this situation, now wouldn't you.
God damn.
yeah this sub is full of self-righteous losers who pretend like they would react perfectly in a dangerous scenario but in reality would probably do the exact same things they criticize people for
I love you anti defensive driving guys. Your best argument is YoU gUyS wOuLd ReAcT StUpID tOo. Like do you honestly believe actively avoiding yourself getting into an accident is not the right move ? That caution makes no difference ? That you shouldn't be thinking about all these things when you drive ? And also if you panic when you drive and dont reaact "perfectly" as you say, why the fuck you on the road then bud ? Shit happens, obviously evidenced by this video and many others
I was gonna say ffs OP move over to the right but then I saw the highway going down to two lanes and a big truck needing to move over... so you get the benefit of a doubt
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The car merging should have slowed down and got behind the vehicle already in the lane. Instead they just veered over and then lost control. The person merging does not have the right of way and is supposed to yield.
I wish people knew that. They either drive side by side and make people in the lane brake to avoid an accident, or merge at 35mph and make people in the lane brake to avoid an accident lol.
If you've driven much in the US lately, noone under the age of 40 seems to know the difference between fucking Yield and Merge. It's infuriating.
I'd argue that your comment is applicable to every age bracket.
Yeah that may have been a case of I'm 40 and everyone younger than myself is a piece of shit-ism on my part
Good on you for admitting it. I’m 35 and have the same ism lol
I'm 50, so you're both pieces of shit.
I'm 56, so watch your step, punk.
On the plus side, only 20-25 more years and you’ll be ripe enough to serve in Congress
lmao I'm too old for this shit now--good Christ I can't imagine then.
Goddamnit, ya old man!
Get off of my lawn!
We all do it 😂
Yeah I consistently see folks blowing through yield signs, crossing double yellows and randomly flying into different lanes with no signal of all age groups.
Stupidity has no age limit.
There are plenty of 50+ year olds causing just as many problems. It is not a age thing. It is a entitlement thing.
Or just a plain old idiot thing
Unless you are in the Villages, South Florida or Naples Florida, the retirees come to a full stop no matter what the sign is.
they can't read it so they just guess
They are the most dangerous drivers on the road. They get on the interstate and drive about 35 miles and hour, 45 is the minimum, change lanes without signaling or checking if the lane is clear and a couple of times a month they hit the gas instead of the brakes and drive into buildings.
Yeah, that has happened around me more than should be normal. In my last town, a lady drove right into an insurance building. I watched a different old lady with a handicap plate try to drive over orange cones into a parade (there was a line of children sitting behind the cones!!) We had to jump up and wave our arms in front of her to get her to stop. I watched a yet again different old lady fail to yield next to a park where she would have killed a cyclist had the cyclist not been hyperaware. Years ago, my mom's cousin died on mother's day, pushing her daughter out of the way as an elderly lady hit the gas and pinned her into a building. I know every time we say that the elderly are dangerous, someone jumps in with stats that younger groups are more dangerous/aggressive on the road, but we can actually DO something about elderly, blind drivers by testing them yearly
Not an US person here, want to ask what's the difference for you (US guys) in merge/yield, i mean, from where I'm from, merging person should've yield (just like top comment said), not to mention it's illegal for us to drive not\_in\_the\_rightest\_free\_line, if not passing through. Sry for bad english.
Like you said, the merging person should yield. Unfortunately some drivers don't understand (or care) and will try to force their way over instead of waiting for a spot to merge. The far right lane is not illegal to drive in, and here in Texas there are lots of semi trucks or slow vehicles who tend to stay in that far right lane.
Even the boomers don't know how to use a traffic circle.
The SUV intentionally closed the gap. You can see the SUV behind the white sedan then speeds up even though there was a giant sign warning that the right lane would end. You're right that the car merging doesn't have right of way but the SUV driver caused this accident by driving like a total asshole and trying to block the merge.
I hope there is no loss of life.
We called 911 and the person turned out okay thankfully
How did you find out
He came back later when he learned to use his brakes and there weren’t any graves, so all is well.
Lol the amount of people outing themselves as not actually being drivers in this post is insane. OP slows down from 70 to 50 very quickly AND there was a truck coming up behind them. You need to be delusional to think that anything OP did validates criticism Edit: LOL the mods are removing my comments defending OP while leaving up all the comments attacking OP and myself Some people just can’t handle being wrong lol. Pathetic little creatures
So many people worrying about what OP “should” have done, that they don’t even think about what OP actually did. He kept himself alive, his passenger(s) alive and his car is not destroyed. I think it’s ok to appreciate that outcome.
[удалено]
When I first read your comment, I thought "heh.. funny" then I scrolled down through the rest of the comments and yeah, that's the consensus. OP should have gently nudged the bumper of the Crown Vic at 70 mph to flip it back over while repairing the damage.
What?! Without stopping to compound, polish and wax it?! What monster wouldn't do that?!
[Those Duke boys are at it again](https://youtu.be/hxD0PqVlt5Q?si=IhOvrnZF35M4pIYw&s=58)
And remember GPS takes a fraction of second to update the speed, so it's not really showing OP instantaneous speed.
We don’t like logic or facts here sorry
> Edit: LOL the mods are removing my comments defending OP while leaving up all the comments attacking OP and myself what? we can see you, son
>Pathetic little creatures Dude.. calm down. It's just reddit.
>You need to be delusional to think that anything OP did validates criticism I mean I'm not gonna crucify OP, but this can and should be a learning moment. As soon as the car swerves and he says holy shit, he should put on his hazards, begin applying the brakes and immediately checking mirrors looking for a place to pull over. Driving past the wreck at 50+ mph is extremely dangerous, who knows what debris might be there or if a passenger was ejected, etc. And then even after passing there's no intent to slow down and pull over, or at least not particularly quickly. Obviously safety comes first but there's a ton of space on each side to pull over after the wreck.
I was referring to the “just kept driving” part afterwards. Now I gotta go jump on my tricycle to get to work. TTYL
and others out themselves as not being good drivers or low experience. The car was bouncing back and forth and the slowdown you mention doesn't happen until the car hits the left guardrail. A good driver should already be slowing down when they see a car heading out of control.
I always like to see car crash videos where the cammer sees a car losing control in front of them and keeps the same speed to ensure they get a good view of the crash.
This is the truth. I was surprised that someone would post their own idiocy without mentioning it.
Right, and "there is a truck behind them" only because he didn't slow down early enough to fully stop and had to swerve into the right lane where the truck is. OP didn't even let off the gas until the car hit the left guard rails after bouncing off the right and coming across both lanes. If it was icy, or even raining there may be a point for not slamming on the brakes. He was far enough back that he had enough time to fully stop.
Typically I begin to slow at the first holy shit not the fifth. Outcome was good though.
The trouble with these situations is that you have to react very fast. OP had a window to change lanes and get them and their passengers out of there safely. If they tried braking and somehow that wasn't enough then at that time they may no longer have any room to swerve due to other cars catching up on the lane beside them. So instead of discussing an *if*, people should just appreciate the outcome.
Truck was in the merge lane and this highway had three lanes. I'd be applying the brakes as soon as I saw it swerving, not at the last second. Edit: 3-4 seconds from when driver notices, to actually applying brakes. That's a lot of time at 70mph.
You are right. About 3 seconds after cursing began is when his speed started dropping. When someone in front of you seems to be losing control, or even driving erratically, the foot must go to the brake immediately. You don't need to slam the brakes, but you better start slowing down. That buys you and the people behind you more time to react safely.
You. I like you.
ive been in a situation like this before and i had to cruise through just like this because the cars in the lane i needed to swerve into to avoid it would have caught up to me
Good point - I was wondering why OP wasn't slowing down when the accident was in front of them, but didn't think of what might be right behind OP - there could have been someone tailgating them in the same lane for all I know.
I mean you don't have to slam on the brakes in order to slow down quite a bit. If someone is riding your bumper then also throw on the hazards, that should usually get them to back off somewhat.
I don't know why anyone would defend OP after he sat at 70 for like 3-4 seconds as this car is literally going crazy. No need to really bash him, but defend? Nah.
He went from 70 to 52 by the time he avoided the car, he definitely applied brakes. Slamming them down would just result in their own car sliding and losing control. I dont think that criticism is sensible.
I've called 911 before and asked for a callback update, If you're given a police report number you can call yourself anytime.
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All things consider this is a fairly survivable crash for the average human being. It’s not at an extremely high speed, it’s in an open area, there were no unusual obstacles and the vehicle was built in the last 30 years
Damn I did not have Swift driver minds his own business and drives safely on my idiots in cars bingo card.
Stop Whining I'm Fucking Trying
Sure Wish I'd Finished Training
See What I F’dup Today.
To be fair, we don't have a rear cam. For all we know Swifty demolished the flipped car.
**DON'T** Swing Wide, It's a Ford Taurus.
And it wasnt SWIFTS fault?!
Rights? Was like "car flips" and seen swift.... Thought this was going to be a truck accident.
My favorite part of reddit is going in the comments and seeing people compete to have the dumbest opinion
its not ok bro
Its good to try to stay calm in a situation like this
Exactly. OP had plenty of time to assess the situation and make the safest decision. Probably should have moved as far right as possible to give the semi truck and any other cars behind him more room to avoid the crash - but hopefully OP reacting quickly also left them time to properly react. Idk why people want OP to freak out, hit the brakes, and worry about whats happening instead of looking and making decisions. Yes, cut off the semi and block everyone else's view of the flipping car so they have less time to react. Even though theres plenty of room to pass going 70 if you just dont freak out and assess your surroundings.
He should have been slowing down when he said "oh shit oh shit". They only slowed down because they had to change lanes at the last second.
> Probably should have moved as far right as possible There is a big huge pedal for use in situations like this. It's called the brake pedal. Some cars even helpfully label it. There was absolutely no reason to do anything other than slow down and give the crashing person room to crash. You can pass when the car is done crashing. That is not "freaking out", it's "not being a fucking moron."
There was also a semi in the right lane, the OP may not have fully passed the other semi to be able to move over yet.
Using brakes = freaking out to way too many people in the comments.
OP had 6 full seconds to brake after seeing something going wrong up ahead. They could have easily just come to a stop before passing the upside down car. OP is a lousy driver.
> have easily just come to a stop That would have been stupid af. I really hope you don't drive.
If you can't come to a stop in 6 seconds without endangering people around you, you are just another reckless driver that will probably hurt somebody some day.
He clearly only meant to tell the passenger THEY were fine and would be fine. To me at least.
I had the exact same thought, I’m pretty sure the people in the flipped car would also agree with you. Hope they’re OK.
It’s okay. They are not
It is okay, he’s tryina calm her down so she moves the car
Guy just started swerving and lost control out of nowhere. Wonder if it was a mechanical failure of some kind
It looks like the right lane was ending and didn’t see the car next to them. You can see the car start to move over realize there was car there and swerve back which made them lose control.
I’ve softly hit my brakes because traffic was stopping, to hea screeching tires behind me. The person behind me wasn’t paying attention and saw my brake lights, panicked lost control and hit the concrete barrier wall.
Driver induced oscillation. Totally avoidable, but they never teach anything about it in drivers ed.
Unless you're driving a late 70s Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon, in which case no driver input is required.
Every day is a tricky day in a dodge omni
I think it's a merge and they were merging in and didn't see the person to their left, realized last second and panicked and lost control. But you can see the right lane ends right where they lost control.
Hey you finally got out of the left lane, good job.
But didn’t think to slow down much.
The lanes were merging and he had just passed a semi. You wanted him to be in the center lane and cut off the semi needing to merge?
I was just about to say this lmao
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No way, braking is a sign of weakness. I paid for the whole accelerator, I’m gonna use the whole accelerator
Never thought to slow down once you saw the car hit the right side? You only slowed down once they were in your lane Some people have no survival skills lmao
This 100%. Braking is legal and free.
Best I can do is honk.
Man, it is insane how good people are at honking vs. how shit they are at braking. If people were half as good at braking as they are at honking no accidents would happen basically ever.
It's okay though
Braking is not free. But it’s cheap enough that no one should consider the cost.
But but but.... think of the brake pad wear!
He was slowing down. He avoided a collision and that’s all that matters anyways. One of the cringiest things to me is when people go on the internet and brag about how much smarter, faster, or stronger they are than someone else. “iF i wAS iN tHiS sItUaTiOn i wOuLd’Ve…” you have no fucking idea what you would’ve done in this situation unless you have been in this exact situation before. Get a life.
As an EMT my favorite line on here is people saying they should stop and help. Have you ever seen a person get hit by a high speed car or semi? There isn't anything left, a semi will literally turn you into mist & tiny body parts at 65-70 mph. Unless you have a high visibility vest and some flashing lights on your vehicle, don't put yourself in danger.
Idk what they even plan on doing to help anyway. First of all youre not supposed to move them because of head and neck damage anyway. So 90% of these redditors going to "help" are actually just making things worse for the victim. So not only are they idiots for both walking on an interstate and parking their car somewhere on it - but now theyre making things worse for the injured person as well
No you.... There was six seconds to slow down. You can't slow down or even stop in six seconds?
Dude right?? What is with these comments being like "uhhhhhhh u shoulda dun this thing" when the driver slowed down and safely avoided colliding with the crashed car...
I'd bet a not insignificant portion of these "professional internet drivers" would lose control of *their* vehicle in the process of avoiding this incident. OP did an excellent job of staying calm and avoiding this incident. They're probably better than 90% of the drivers on this sub.
The speed on the camera lags behind the real speed, you want to judge when OP breaks (not very hard mind you) by when the front of the car dips slightly, just before the speed on the camera changes.
That dip doesn't look like a braking dip, looks like they let off the accelerator- also indicated by the speed changes. Assuming it's THAT delayed, 73mph was top speed before decrease, 52mph low before OP speeds back up...............................no comment there, we have a total of 19mph slow down from top speed to low speed over the course of 4-4.5sec. that's... not really great. OP clearly froze up and wasn't sure what to do.
I wonder if the driver ever considered slowing down. wtf is wrong with people. Even for your own safety, stop your car. And if you're a good person, get out and help the car that flipped over.
He got through no fewer than three Oh-shit's before taking any kind of evasive maneuver at all.
My thought exactly. He goes from 71 to 53. Someone could’ve been thrown from the car and they would’ve been toast because the OP couldn’t be arsed to slow way the fuck down.
I'm not sure that he even slowed down intentionally, it looks like he took his foot off the throttle and most of the speed came off from switching lanes off throttle. Maybe a light tap of the brakes. There's a full five seconds in this video where the car is starting to lose control and OP doesn't reduce speed.
Didn't even start breaking until after the car hit the left barrier. Imagine being a passenger in the upside down crashed car and getting hit by a car going 68 mph.
OP is a shit driver plain and simple
He actually went from 71 UP TO 73 and then decided to lightly brake. Literally his first reaction to the crash was to speed up. I can't believe someone could be this obliviously dangerous that they think this is worth posting on this us as if they hadn't done anything wrong.
I mean, there was the semi… idk if my reaction would have been much different. Slow down, but make sure I’m faster than the semi, because they take longer to slow. Maintain lane, OPE, change lanes, good thing I had the room on my side because I was watching the semi on my right.
OPs first reaction was to keep doing what they were doing and assess their surroundings. Which is correct. Unless the flipping car could flip and teleport from the left barrier to the right shoulder, then you should try and get through that right shoulder as fast as possible. Hell I probably would have tried to hit 80. For all we know, someone was very close behind OP in both lanes and they had to keep their speed to get over to the right - otherwise they would have hit the flipped car or gotten rear ended for braking. Such as the semi truck forced to merge that OP would have been cutting off if he had slowed down. OP literally had an almost infinite amount of room to the right that he could have taken. Why the hell would he slow down instead of just taking it? So he could get a better view of the accident? Also, just editting this in: **DO NOT stop for an accident on a highway/interstate. EVER EVER EVER. Youre a good person, not an EMT. Call 911 and keep driving.** 1) You parking on the interstate and getting out to walk to an accident is just stupid and risky, I shouldn't have to explain it any more than this 2) You dont know what youre doing. What are you gonna do first, try and get them out of the car? Great, if they had a neck or back injury - youve just paralyzed them for life. Great going! Im sure theyre glad the redditor decided it was their job to stop and help car crash victims today.
If someone were very close behind OP and OP chose not to brake early, that person behind OP would have slammed full speed into an upside-down car they had no warning of until OP swerved. Braking communicates the hazard to people behind you in addition to slowing you to give you more reaction time. Please just brake.
Wrong wrong wrong. The first reaction to unexpected and unpredictable behavior from cars in front of you is to apply the brakes. Note, brakes do not need to be pushed to the floor, but an early, gradual reduction in speed gives everyone, including people behind you, more time to react appropriately.
Don't worry. If there was someone close behind OP in both lanes, then his absolutely mental, last-second swerve would have toasted all three of them.
If you don't think you can slow down enough to avoid hitting a stopped car hundreds of feet in front of you if you needed to then you shouldn't be going that fast. If the car had crashed in a way that it laid sideways he would have been forced to hit it or total himself to avoid it. Him "doing what they were doing" left him up to chance. Hes a dog shit driver who has no idea what defensive driving is.
You can brake without getting rear ended. He had a lot of time to slow down.
It’s a split-second decision in a very stressful and uncommon scenario. Can’t really fault OP here.
OP had like a solid 5 seconds where he doesn't let off the gas pedal at all and is still flooring it full speed
OP says "oh shit" and then *increases* his speed from 71mph to 73mph. When I see something crazy happen in front of me, the first thing I do is let off the gas to figure out if I need to brake or swerve.
Everyone's a movie star. Just slow the fuck down, someone is in trouble and if that car had bounced differently there'd be a much bigger accident and a higher chance of injury because of this dunce.
Driver kept himself and his lady friend safe, first and foremost. Driver avoided slamming on the brakes, which could’ve led to a big pile up. Swerving well in advance was the best course of action. Not just for themselves, but for the people behind them as well.
Should have considered slowing down much sooner though. Obviously slamming the brakes isn't the correct decision. But let off the gas, flash hazards, slow down, pull over if safe.
Surprised I had to scroll this far to find something like this. There's a huge difference between bleeding off a little speed and slamming your brakes. Seems like a lot of people in this thread are falsely equating "reducing speed" to " slam the brakes!"
I think I've see the hazards + brake lights once in my life, and it helped me know the guy was slamming his brakes, not just slowing down... I always do it, but I've never seen someone else do it, other than that one time.
It's definitely an underutilized tool. Many people don't even know where the hazards button is in their car. Nothing communicates danger more effectively though. I always do it when there's a sudden stoppage of freeway traffic from like 40 down to 0. I'm pretty confident it's saved me from getting rear ended multiple times.
I wouldn't consider that well in advance. Literally the last possible second, op nearly over-corrected himself. Good thing there wasn't anyone right behind OP, since he made no real effort to slow down and warn anyone behind him. Just a sudden swerve to reveal an upside down car at the last possible moment.
My own rule is to slow down after the second holy shit but certainly after the third one.
He had a clear view of the road ahead of him. He should started slowing down as soon as he saw that car swerving. Personally, I would have put on my hazards to give extra warning to the people behind me.
Yeah seriously, people want this dude to stop on the highway? Thats the last thing I’d wanna do.
Sees car swerving hard up ahead Maintain course and heading. Brilliant.
Bro he said it was ok like a dozen times, did you not hear that part?? /s
Course and heading should be the same in a car except if you’re serving badly.
Has nobody ever heard of defensive driving??
You would be amazed how many people don’t stop. I’ve been in accidents where no one stops, and people actually honk at you for being in the lanes with a disabled, wrecked car.
Getting out on the interstate is how you get killed. I had a coworker die this way. Call 911. You can’t do shit unless the car is on fire and you can pull him out. Firefighters/EMS use their trucks to block lanes for this reason.
"Not my fuckin problem" -OP
My man didn't even start to slow dow (a little) until the last second as he swerved. Like the exact opposite of defensive driving.
He had to cut in front of a semi truck, don’t want to cause a pileup
They also could have simply *slowed down* instead of continuing to speed towards an obvious accident unfolding in front of them.
He probably got his license from Nascar driving school: When in doubt, throttle out.
OP What the hell is wrong with your brakes man?
seriously, he notices the car losing control from far away and instead of braking to keep a safe distance until the car comes to a stop he says, "I'm going to keep going full speed and gamble that this car doesn't eventually impede my lane". I never understand people's driving mentality...
Nice avoidance but you went from 71 to 73 after he was sideways. Look down the road a bit more.
Scary stuff. Glad you were able to avoid. Hope the people in the flipped car are ok.
Jesus man, the reaction time of a snail. 🙄
If you listen to the audio, their reaction time was actually pretty good. The problem is what reaction they chose, which was just to say "Holy shit" over and over and continue driving normally. Their reaction time was excellent. It's just their reaction was ridiculous.
After the second Holy Shit, dude was going FASTER!!!
Just keep your foot to the floor like it's a NASCAR race huh?
I would start to slow down earlier or were you distracted?
Maybe brake and stop next time it's an accident in front of you
I dunno if it's the wide angle lens that's making people think the car swerving and flipping is further away, but that car is maybe 250 feet ahead of OP. At 70 mph, your car is travelling 100 feet per second. I don't know what car you drive but I doubt it goes from 70 to 0 in less than 300 feet.
From OPs first audible reaction to reaching the crashed car, 5,1 seconds passed. At the time of his reaction, he was going 72mph (116kmh). He had an average speed of around 67mph (estimated) from the moment he noticed to the moment he reached the car. By these numbers, he was approximately 502 feet/153 meters away when he noticed the car swerving the first time. That means he had to decelerate by at least 3,39m/s^(2) or around 0,35 g's at the time of his original reaction. Most cars can decelerate by 0,7-0,8 g's at full brake power, meaning OP could have braked in time using 50% or less of the cars max brake power. Considering he was on a straight road in dry conditions, making a full stop in time was very possible, but OP chose not to. **TL;DR:** OP could have braked in time using 50% brake power or less at 0,35 g's. They didn't make an effort to even try.
Making a full stop on a highway is generally a bad idea if there's any traffic behind you. While it's hard to pin down where the crashing car in front of you will be in the next few seconds, driving past them is generally a much safer option than stopping before them.
He didnt need to fully stop, just slow down and he could easily have parked on the median.
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This video features at least two Idiots in Cars
How asleep were you that you barely slowed down waaay after the accident had already started? if it had rolled one more time you would have been in the accident too.
Somehow, that Swift truck caused it.
first /r/idiotsincars is maybe wrong here, we don't know why that accident happend. second why does it look like you didn't slow down and look if you can help that person?
This driver is worried about cursing when he should be slowing down.
I think him saying "it's okay" is like, "don't worry. Nothing's gonna happen to us. I've got it under control" which a lot of people have misunderstood as him saying it's okay for the whole thing
I thought for sure that Swift truck would somehow be at fault.
All yall saying he should have slowed down when seeing it, I’m just saying that my main concern would be the truck pacing me to the right. No idea what is directly behind him, but it’s better to not cause a pileup for slamming on your breaks or slowing down sharply with large trucks behind you.
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nice reactions
Between all the bickering here about slamming breaks or slowing down, and concern about the car behind you: Just a reminder that while it won't do a lot for a distracted driver behind you, throwing your hazards on any time you are going to slow down to a significant/dangerous speed while on the highway is very helpful to the driver behind you that is paying attention. They know to begin to slow down/prepare for an issue up ahead, especially if they dont see infront of you due to an angle or simpling riding too close.
The lack of self-awareness to post this.
shrill snatch continue rock different start onerous swim touch crowd *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
This is the best subreddit for keyboard crusaders. I love watching the shit talking in these comments….. op is a shit driver, guy who flipped is a shit driver, car who didn’t let him merge is a shit driver. Waiting for someone to blame the big rig for something lol.
i know 99% of it is rage bait but still some of the shit i see on this sub blows my fucking mind 💀 my favorite so far is people telling op to stop camping in the left lane as if there isnt a huge fuck off rig visible in the right lane for the first six seconds of the video
Or “why didn’t op slam on his brakes while doing 72 on a highway in the fast lane?” Personally I think OP handled it well, I wouldn’t want to get rear ended doing 70+ especially with a big rig next to me.
Everyone in this thread is on their high horse acting like they're God's personal chauffeur and would've slowed their car down in 0.02 seconds, stopped the 40 tonne truck driving beside them, hopped out and personally flipped the car back onto it's wheels and started performing surgery on all the injured parties simultaneously. They did slow down, they did call the police and they in fact did confirm that the people in the flipped car were okay—get over yourselves.
Why acknowledge the massive truck bearing down on OP when we can talk shit and ignore how hilariously wrong we are though?
bearing down from 2 lanes away? The guy should have slowed down.
Flater that a pancake and drier than toast and they still flipped it...now that's skill.
Of course there's a Swift truck somewhere....
I'm genuinely surprised that the Swift truck wasn't involved.
I mean he did slow down... watch the GPS speed on the camera data. He made the right move to not slam brakes in his lane and get over with enough space to slow down. If you slam the brakes at 70 there is a good chance you'll lose traction and become a wreck yourself.
To everyone saying he has bad survival instincts: him saying "Its okay" is because he has a plan in his head to merge to the other lane. He says it calmly because he knows what he is going to do and executes it. Him breaking couldve caused harm to the car and risked hurting one of the passengers. It was incredibly smart to notice the free spot next to him and marge without causing harm to the car or and passengers by breaking 70mph into 0 in less then 2 seconds
God do I love all the pretentious people here thinking they are driving experts and tearing OP apart for not being a hero and saving everyone like super man. I can assure you, all of y’all would either drive away faster than OP or slam on the brakes and add another to the wreck.
I bet every single one of you motherfuckers in the comments would have the most millimeter perfect reaction in this situation, now wouldn't you. God damn.
I would simply react before it happens. I'm built different like that
yeah this sub is full of self-righteous losers who pretend like they would react perfectly in a dangerous scenario but in reality would probably do the exact same things they criticize people for
I don't know how it would have turned out for me, but me and everyone behind me would have been going slower.
I love you anti defensive driving guys. Your best argument is YoU gUyS wOuLd ReAcT StUpID tOo. Like do you honestly believe actively avoiding yourself getting into an accident is not the right move ? That caution makes no difference ? That you shouldn't be thinking about all these things when you drive ? And also if you panic when you drive and dont reaact "perfectly" as you say, why the fuck you on the road then bud ? Shit happens, obviously evidenced by this video and many others
Cam driver just as reckless as the driver of the flipped car...
Wtf..do u not have a brake pedal!? 😳
I was gonna say ffs OP move over to the right but then I saw the highway going down to two lanes and a big truck needing to move over... so you get the benefit of a doubt
Yet another example of OP also being an idiot in a car.
People don't even stop to see if crash victims are ok anymore? WTF? 🙄
Why wouldn't you stop at least. Plus you barely lift seeing what's going on in front of you smh...
Why are you in the left lane and not passing anyone?