Footage of highway speed rear end impact for those interested (this was not my truck)

This was posted in the reddit subforum r/idiotsincars, and the comments are also worthy of a look.

Hope ya'll are having as safe a year as is possible these days...

 

I saw this this morning a died a little. So scary.

 

Anybody want to bet that the cause was distracted driving? I hope nobody was hurt.

 

Hope that text message was worth it

 

Guys - is it totaled? Should I buy it back? I think I'll have my neighbor Jimmy down the road bang it out and not go through insurance.

 

You might need to buy Jimmy a bigger hammer...

 

My last Toyota truck was destroyed when a 40 ton semi rear ended me at 50mph while I was stopped for a construction zone flagman.

 

yea that sucks......

minding UR own business......

Bamm........

 

I'm gonna be that guy, taco driver was just as guilty here. Probably nothing he (or she) could have done about the Subaru because clearly that driver was either texting or unconscious but we see them slow from highway speed to near stop and they don't put the 4 ways on? Maybe would have been the difference maker. Plus the damage to the front of the taco says they hit that Kia(?) pretty hard too - not enough gap left for the conditions. My wife drives a 7 seater and all I could think was my kid is sitting 18" in front of where that taco ended up.
Rearview mirrors are for braking as well as backing up, 4 way flashers are for warning of potential accidents as much as ones that have already happened and for fucks sake turn your lights on in the rain!

 

Get this guy a research grant! He's onto something!

 

Funny guy

 

Put the pipe down, rewatch the video then try again.

 

Stuff like this is why its tough to ride a bike anymore. I always left a place to go and had my eyes on my mirrors in this situation, but damn, nobody gets that right 100% of the time. A guy on a bike would be a red mist with that kind of collision.

 

Lol, what am I watching for specifically? Truck slows from cruising speed to near stop. I don't know what jurisdiction the video is in but everywhere I've ever driven the law is to turn your 4 ways on below about 70kph on the highway. This might have alerted the driver behind that traffic was stopping, not just bunching up and slowing. Then again it might not have. Driver behind (or maybe the auto assist) panic brakes before hitting the truck, causing the nose to dive and launching the truck through the air into the back of the vehicle in front. Undoubtedly better than not braking at all but maybe if the truck had a little more room in front and/or turned their wheels before the impact we would be looking at a two vehicle crash instead of a multi car pileup.
I'm not saying this could have all been avoided (but this could have all been avoided)
and failing that it could have been better. Could have been worse too but why settle for that?

 

When in a traffic slowing situation like this you always want to be in a lane with an out if you can. Numerous times I've drove into the ditch because I was paying attention behind me as well and saw the driver was not going to stop before hitting me.

 

If someone's brake lights are on, they could be stopping, end of story. We shouldn't be getting people used to the idea that brakes mean "slowing down" and hazards mean "ok stopping probably maybe." - especially on top of all the random shit people use their hazards for already. If the brake lights are on, then we should be prepared for whatever happens next, including stopping.

 

I half agree with this. I mean obviously brake lights mean slowing which by extension means possibly stopping, but no-one expects people to be stopping on the highway and by the time they figure out those brake lights ahead didn't go out when they should have, it's too late. People shouldn't be using be using their hazards for random shit in the first place. Like despite what I said above, if you're in a line of cars going slow and you're not the last car in line, turn em off. If you're doing the speed limit but you get nervous because it rains a little harder that is not what hazard lights are for, I can see it's raining now I am wondering what the actual hazard is. But if you are suddenly slowing way below what the normal speed is on that road, there's a handy little button on the dash that says holy fuck we got a situation here and you should press that shit to let the people behind you know what's up.

 

I'm going to opine that with the speed that person was driving and had panic braked in the same spot they would have hit the vehicle in front had the Tacoma not been there at all.

I've never heard of this law requiring drivers to turn 4 ways on below 44mph on a highway.

 

Why would you have any expectation of when someone is going to let off the brakes?

 

Well fancy that, I googled it and it varies by state and more than I would have thought.

• California: Hazard light use is not permitted while driving except to indicate a traffic hazard.
• Colorado: Hazard light use is not permitted while driving except if the vehicle speed is 25 mph or less.
• Connecticut: Hazard light use is permitted while driving unless otherwise posted.

Here it is posted on signs on the highway "use flashers below 70kph" or something similar.

Edit: forgot to add, if the taco hadn't been there my comments would just shift to the next car in line

Most of the time I see cars braking on the highway it is because they suddenly realised they were going to fast or getting too close to the guy in front. I tend to watch the guy in front of the guy in front of me or the guy in front of that guy and only brake if I see multiple vehicles ahead braking. I can do this because I leave enough room that my brick of a vehicle will slow using the power of aerodynamics but the reason I do it is so I don't cause a chain reaction of braking cars behind me. I ended up in a 40 min traffic jam in the middle of nowhere once and when we got to the front of the line there was nothing there, figured someone panic braked and it just rippled on back until 5 kms of cars slowed to a near stop.