Reckless truck driver crash caught on dash cam

[skyking]

This is in right hand drive country, so the driver took the brunt of this collision. He was very lucky to survive. Watch how much the car's impact moves the trailer!

From youtube post:
Description: Back / Neck broken in 7 different places, Front seat snapped all bolts and landed on top of baby seat in rear, luckily no child in car that day. Driver is recovering well and back on the road now. Chambers Flat rd, Chambers Flat.

 

[deadlyapp]

Hopefully a big settlement. That truck driver took that turn without any regards to their speed or angle.

 

[dank69]

Not a great decision to attempt to stay on the road there when there was plenty of room to get the fuck off.

 

[Captante]

Not a great decision to attempt to stay on the road there when there was plenty of room to get the fuck off.

First thing I thought was the driver should have be able to avoid the truck even in a clumsy SUV .... that's TWO crappy drivers. (if the driver in the camera-car went left they avoid ANY collision & IMO very likely drive away!)

Never lose sight of how dangerous driving is!

 

[dank69]

First thing I thought was the driver should have be able to avoid the truck even in a clumsy SUV .... that's TWO crappy drivers. (if the driver in the camera-car went left they avoid ANY collision & IMO very likely drive away!)

Never lose sight of how dangerous driving is!

99% of accidents are the result of two shitty drivers, even if one of them is way shittier than the other.

 

[Captante]

One reason I watch YT dash-cam accident-compilation videos sometimes (and suggest that anyone who drives do the same!) is that you will see situations you'll HOPEFULLY never run into when actually driving and think about what you would do differently.

Just be sure to mute the crappy music on most of them!

 

[snoopy7548]

One reason I watch YT dash-cam accident-compilation videos sometimes (and suggest that anyone who drives do the same!) is that you will see situations you'll HOPEFULLY never run into when actually driving and think about what you would do differently.

Just me sure to mute the crappy music on most of them!

I love dash cam/car videos. Especially the ones of people showing off (mostly Mustang drivers...) and crashing.

 

[skyking]

The reason the driver did not go offroad and avoid the trailer is because he had avoided the truck successfully.
Think about that.
The truck driver had grabbed the johnson bar, a manual air application for the trailer brakes only. This caused the lockup of the trailer tires and the huge sideways drift. If the trailer was tracking like normal, the car was several feet clear of the truck and where anybody would expect a trailer to be.
I use the johnson when towing the big excavator on the city hills in the rain.
If i am heading down a steep hill and turning sharp in an intersection, the trailer and excavator weight starts to jackknife the truck sideways in the slick. It is not a good feel. Straight ahead on the road, the trailer bias is plenty to keep it tracking behind me in heavy braking applications, but that little scenario above is not handled well.
I grab a little lever and it straightens right out.

 

[Captante]

The reason the driver did not go offroad and avoid the trailer is because he had avoided the truck successfully.
Think about that.
The truck driver had grabbed the johnson bar, a manual air application for the trailer brakes only. This caused the lockup of the trailer tires and the huge sideways drift. If the trailer was tracking like normal, the car was several feet clear of the truck and where anybody would expect a trailer to be.
I use the johnson when towing the big excavator on the city hills in the rain.
If i am heading down a steep hill and turning sharp in an intersection, the trailer and excavator weight starts to jackknife the truck sideways in the slick. It is not a good feel. Straight ahead on the road, the trailer bias is plenty to keep it tracking behind me in heavy braking applications, but that little scenario above is not handled well.
I grab a little lever and it straightens right out.

I'm still not hearing any reasonable explanation for dashcam-driver not swerving onto the dirt road/grassy area to the immediate left when the trailer was coming at him/her. (provided the dashcam-driver wasn't doing something we don't see like towing a trailer themselves)

While I agree that avoiding instantly becoming the "bug on the windshield" WAS in fact a "win" of sorts, (you can always buy another car) a complete victory/non-collision was SO close AND easily within reach!

As a secondary point won't it be nice when most heavy trucks HAVE things like ABS built in by default? (the technology has existed for air-brake systems for quite awhile now)

 

[skyking]

from the time he missed the front part of the truck to when the trailer swatted him was 1 second.
go look at it and count it yourself.

 

[MrSquished]

from the time he missed the front part of the truck to when the trailer swatted him was 1 second.
go look at it and count it yourself.

No idea why the guy that got hit is being victim blamed at all here as part of the problem. It's insane.

 

[Captante]

No idea why the guy that got hit is being victim blamed at all here as part of the problem. It's insane.

The accident was 99.9% the fault of the incompetent trucker.

However given that there was OPEN SPACE to the passenger-vehicles left that the driver failed to swerve into resulting in a smashed car AND serious injury I'm not sure what's even debatable here.

YES it was better to survive. NO it was NOT better to get your car totaled and get totally fvcked up to avoid bottoming out your suspension in a ditch.

 

[skyking]

WE get it, the internet has broken you.

 

[Captante]

WE get it, the internet has broken you.

Wth are you talking about?

 

[skyking]

he missed the truck, and one second later the trailer whipped around and got him. he did not have time to avoid that. It was a completely unpredictable outcome. For you to watch that and conclude he should have avoided it indicates you have lost your objectivity.
Now Jedi's video of the night time near head on was quite a bit more predictable. headlights in your lane, quick twitch.

 

[Captante]

he missed the truck, and one second later the trailer whipped around and got him. he did not have time to avoid that. It was a completely unpredictable outcome. For you to watch that and conclude he should have avoided it indicates you have lost your objectivity.
Now Jedi's video of the night time near head on was quite a bit more predictable. headlights in your lane, quick twitch.

Idk.... I would have been veering left away from that trucks path based on its position in the road before it even entered the turn.

But then I also rode a motorcycle in NYC traffic for years and tend to anticipate the worst-case in traffic. 99% of accident-avoidance is not being there when it happens. (if you need to make an abrupt move you've already failed)

 

[dank69]

By the 10 second mark the driver could see the whole truck was in his lane. Just because the cab veered back into his own lane physics says that trailer had no chance of doing the same. By the 10 second mark the out was to get off the road. These are split-second decisions and it's easy for me to criticize from the comfort of my couch but I have avoided several close calls like that in the past. Not with a tandem box truck thankfully but I assume my reflexes would be the same.

Anyway, definitely not putting any blame on the victim here it's just a very good example for how dangerous the road can be and why it is important to always know where your outs are before you need them.

 

[Captante]

Anyway, definitely not putting any blame on the victim here it's just a very good example for how dangerous the road can be and why it is important to always know where your outs are before you need them.

Also a prime example of why you keep your eyes pointed down the road as far ahead as possible and your head on a swivel so you can ANTICIPATE situations like the one in that video. Situational awareness FTW.

When I drove for a living they came up nearly every day.


EDIT: Breaking down where the drivers involved in a serious accident went wrong (especially if you have video) is a terrific way to learn.

An editorial in an old motorcycle magazine I used to read talked about how the author used to occupy himself while riding by looking ahead and imagining worst-case scenarios.

One day he was riding behind a truck with several mattress's on the back and was thinking about what he would do if one flew off and came right at him. You know what comes next. Long story short he discovered it WAS possible to ride an RD-400 over a mattress at 65 mph!

 

[Captante]

from the time he missed the front part of the truck to when the trailer swatted him was 1 second.
go look at it and count it yourself.

I just watched that video like 10 times in a row to make sure I was being fair and you are correct that driver had a FULL SECOND *(one-one-thousand) to react ... possibly slightly more after the tractor got back in its lane. A quick swerve still could have saved the day though.

If you go from the point an "aware" driver SHOULD have been like "holy schnikes!!!" (IMO) at the trajectory of that oncoming speeding tandem it's nearly 3 seconds.


If they had properly anticipated the situation the entire incident could have been avoided by IDEALLY slowly drifting left as the truck approached and driving intentionally onto the grass -OR- by YANKING the steering-wheel left as the cab was flying by at the last instant. (and possibly rolling to be fair... still vastly preferable to what happened!)

 

[skyking]

give it up. The trailer was behind the truck and then it wasn't. He even missed the entire front of the trailer, so you want to monday morning quarterback it to figure he should anticipate what a drifting set of doubles was going to do.

 

[dank69]

give it up. The trailer was behind the truck and then it wasn't. He even missed the entire front of the trailer, so you want to monday morning quarterback it to figure he should anticipate what a drifting set of doubles was going to do.

The second box never left the left lane.

 

[Captante]

give it up. The trailer was behind the truck and then it wasn't. He even missed the entire front of the trailer, so you want to monday morning quarterback it to figure he should anticipate what a drifting set of doubles was going to do.

Remind me never to get in a car with you!

That clown wasn't even as far left ON the road as they could have been never mind the fact that giant-death was bearing down on them!

You would be better off driving into a tree! (admittedly not much!)

While of course I have no way to be 100% certain I'm still fairly confident I would have been a good 10 feet onto the wide grass median well before that trailer swung wide.

 

[skyking]

He missed the entire front half of it. It got him because it went sideways.

 

[skyking]

It did not swing wide. It slid sideways like tokyo drift, FFS!

 

[dank69]

He missed the entire front half of it. It got him because it went sideways.

He didn't miss the front half of the truck. The front half of the truck missed him. The rear half never got out of the way.