Most likely? Again, defensive driving 101. The FIRST thing you are taught is to always have an out. You never drive with someone blocking your out. The copped quickly passed the car on the right side of him, and appeared to have left room. Also, you can't really see if there are any cars coming from the other lane until after the white truck swerves. Not much time to assess the amount of oncoming traffic. That's why you're taught to know your out before you need it. It really is the very first thing any driving instruction will teach you. There is no way he was counting on the oncoming lane as his out.
PUH-LEEZE!
About the bolded part, never driven in rush hour traffic in a city, have you? If you're in the middle lane of a multi-lane highway and it's rush hour, your only out will be to hit whatever you're going to hit.....or get hit by whatever's going to hit you.
Now, about the crash. The dash cam only shows what's directly in front of him.....it doesn't provide the peripheral vision humans have nor could it look in the side view and rear view mirrors.
We don't know what was along side him, but we know the oncoming lanes were empty, the white pickup was definitely to his right, and he had an oncoming SUV bearing down on him.
His only real option was what he did. First, do you absolutely know where the red Grand Am was when the accident happened? You know, that red car in the lane to the right of the cop at the light that went straight through the intersection. Don't think so; it could've easily been right at the cop's RR corner, and he was aware of that. There's no way you could know where it is, but I'd bet the cop knew.
Second, when the white pickup swerved right and appeared to almost stop, its action effectively cutting off the right turn maneuver. If the cop had swerved right, that action would have put the officer broadside across the lane---his front end would have been buried in the rear of the white pickup----with the driver's door providing the point of impact that the SUV surely would have had on the cop's car.
Now that'd be a pretty stupid move, wouldn't it?
Third, he's got a viewpoint giving a better view into the oncoming lanes of traffic than the cam has. So, he could determine with better accuracy than you or I can what was clear and what wasn't.
Instead, the cop put the bulk of the car between himself and the impact point and into what appears to be a clear lane....smart move.
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