Head-on accident video taken with in-car cam

kaisen · 03-21-2012, 09:20 AM

OUCH!!

The car entered the freeway going the wrong way. All three in that car were killed. The driver of the cargo van was critically injured, but survived. The husband and wife in the camera car (Mercedes C-class) escaped with minor injuries.

Tell your friends and family you love them every time you see them. You never know....

Rick Lee · Rick Lee's Garage

I need to stop clicking on these Russian accident threads. Though, as I normally ride a motorcycle, I am always looking far ahead of what's just in front of me. Pretty sure I would have seen that one coming well in advance. It's just a matter of how fast I'd have been able to back off or jump to the right lanes.

Flieger · Flieger's Garage

What is with these dash cams? I don't know anyone with one. Do they record the last 20 minutes or something like a cockpit voice recorder?

craigster59 · craigster59's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flieger

What is with these dash cams? I don't know anyone with one. Do they record the last 20 minutes or something like a cockpit voice recorder?

I've heard they're popular due to staged accidents and insurance fraud.

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

That overhead sign they pass a second before the accident has a 50 on it with the US Federal road outline. Where was this shot?

slakjaw · 03-21-2012, 10:30 AM

Wow. Just wow. That is scary.

KevinP73 · 03-21-2012, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flieger

What is with these dash cams? I don't know anyone with one. Do they record the last 20 minutes or something like a cockpit voice recorder?

The details of how each one differs but they basically record a set period of time and store it on a hard drive. Older files ore overwritten if not downloaded before then.
My insurance will give me a 15% discount IF I install one AND IF it provides usefull data on a claim.

WolfeMacleod · 03-21-2012, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Flieger

What is with these dash cams? I don't know anyone with one. Do they record the last 20 minutes or something like a cockpit voice recorder?

Whenever I'm in the 911, I have mine running. Simply because if anything happens, I want proof...

billh1963 · billh1963's Garage

As I've gotten older I have become much more situationally aware (and cautious). I would have been way on the brakes well before the hit. In fact, as I was watching this I was hitting the imaginary brake pedal on the floor as soon as i caught "abnormal" movement on the right and certainly would have been braking when the van started braking. The driver of the M-B even started seeing a problem...yet I did not detect any advance braking in the video.

There is nothing wrong with slowing gown with things don't look right.

Palum6o · Palum6o's Garage

I'd like to see a closer examination of this, how the heck could that car be going in the wrong direction, the road looks like a modern one with a decent design. I heard of 'Geister Fahrer'on the autobahn, but this is crazy. Scariest thing I've seen in a while.

On a side note, I know the C class is a safe car, but that cargo van really 'softened' the blow.

Zeke · 03-21-2012, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billh1963

As I've gotten older I have become much more situationally aware (and cautious). I would have been way on the brakes well before the hit. In fact, as I was watching this I was hitting the imaginary brake pedal on the floor as soon as i caught "abnormal" movement on the right and certainly would have been braking when the van started braking. The driver of the M-B even started seeing a problem...yet I did not detect any advance braking in the video.

There is nothing wrong with slowing gown with things don't look right.

With the camera to the right of the driver, the passenger would have seen the car coming onto the road before the driver did, if he saw it at all until it appeared to the left of the van. At that point it was milliseconds to go.

Goes to show you that you never know when it's game over.

bretski · 03-21-2012, 03:40 PM

Looks like they guy in the truck only tapped his brakes prior to hitting oncoming car. I would have thought the truck driver would have been on the brakes harder. Would that have changed the outcome? Hard to say.

stealthn · 03-21-2012, 05:31 PM

WOw that comes at you fast!

I have never understood how someone could A. get on the ramp going the wrong way in the first place, then B> not see the traffic coming at them the wrong way???

mikeesik · 03-21-2012, 05:41 PM

Awful.

Aurel · Aurel's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by stealthn

WOw that comes at you fast!

I have never understood how someone could A. get on the ramp going the wrong way in the first place, then B> not see the traffic coming at them the wrong way???

Vodka will do that to ya

.

peppy · 03-21-2012, 05:50 PM

I met a car once on I85 south about 4 in the morning going the wrong way...I almost crapped my pants, and so did everyone else in the car.

Christien · Christien's Garage

Getting on the freeway in the wrong direction sounds nuts, but it does happen. It happened here just a few months ago:

TheSpec - Wrong way driver killed on QEW

BURLINGTON An elderly man is dead after driving his car the wrong way into oncoming traffic on the Queen Elizabeth Way Monday night.

Burlington OPP said the crash occurred in the northbound (Toronto bound) lanes of the QEW between Lakeshore Road and Fairview Street at 9:40 p.m. as the elderly man drove his full-size Buick sedan southbound at 9:40 p.m.

His vehicle collided head on with a Honda with three men inside opposite the Mapleview Mall just south of the Fairview Street/Plains Road East exit.

billybek · billybek's Garage

I was driving home from an out of town job and overtook a guy that was driving on the wrong side of the divided highway. I drove next to him honking my horn, then drove ahead of him with my 4 ways on still honking my horn.
Thankfully he figured it out just as he was about to crest a hill.
I was convinced i was going to see someone die.

JAR0023 · JAR0023's Garage

Had this almost happen to me last fall on I-40 between Nashville and Memphis. Many of the exits are just a simple overpass with a straight shot on or off at both ends of the bridge. I was W/B in the right lane easing up on an 18-wheeler. I checked my mirrors and started sliding over to the left lane. Just as I cleared enough of the truck to see ahead I saw a silver car headed straight at me. I jerked back to the right and looked in my mirror to see cars scattering everywhere. Might have been a foot between our two cars as it passed.

I called 911 and let them know about the fool on the roadway. Then called a buddy, as I had to tell someone. I was cool until I started relating the story to my buddy, then all of the adrenelin hit. I've driven 40k + miles a year for work for the last upteen years. Never had an at fault accident, never been in a major accident. This one shook me a bit. If I had been looking at the phone or radio I could easily have been a dead man.

All I can figure is the driver made it to the leading edge of the bridge and turned left instead of going across the bridge then turning left.

J

Evans, Marv · 03-21-2012, 07:56 PM

Years ago I was transitioning from I-8 west to I-5 north on a two lane ramp. I was in the right lane and all of a sudden a guy passed me going in the other direction in the left hand lane. He was in a big car laid back with his shades on as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Must have made it, because I listed on the evening news and nobody commented about it. That video shows just how scarry fast something like that can happen.