Massive Car Crash Alternate Ending

What to do when faced with a potential head-on collision caused by impatient, speeding driver

What seems to have happened here was a speedy driver from the rear passes  our camera car (on a curve!) that was ahead of him or her (probably him) on a roadway that has only one lane of traffic in each direction. 

As he speeds up to pass the car, the driver of the red vehicle (that the speedy driver probably did not see since we, with the view from inside the camera car, could not see due to the driver of the light coloured car directly behind the red car following too closely) slows down to make a right turn onto a side road and then the driver of the light coloured car who was tailgating the red car must also slow down dramatically.

To avoid rear-ending this light coloured car the speedy driver swerves hard to the left, losing control, into oncoming traffic.

Three drivers of 3 different oncoming vehicles (first the blue car driver, then the white van driver, and finally the driver of a small black car) then make beautiful, split-second moves going, to varying degrees, onto the right shoulder of their roadway to successfully avoid the head-on collision. Notice how the three vehicles on the left and the one vehicle on the right all used all the available space (the dirt shoulder) to avoid the potential crash.

Many drivers would stare directly at the one thing they don’t want to hit and are therefore drawn exactly to that one thing (i.e., the oncoming car).

 What are the lessons to be learned here?

• DON’T BE IN SUCH A RUSH! Unless you are on your way to save the lives of thousands of people, you don’t need to drive that much faster than the people around you.

• Never pass on a curve. You must be able, depending on your speed, to see hundreds of metres ahead of your vehicle before commencing a pass.

• Use all available space necessary to avoid a crash — just like our three heroes here.

• Don’t you ever tailgate! (See “Lost Highway” clip to get the joke.) If you have to hit your brakes and dramatically slow down on a non-city road like this one when someone in front of you makes a turn, then YOU ARE FOLLOWING TOO CLOSELY!  If our impatient driver here didn’t do his uncontrolled swerve, everybody in the light coloured car would be eating hospital food right now.

• Check your rear every time you slow down. The driver of the light coloured car might have followed the red car into the right turn to avoid the rear end collision if s/he saw it coming. The driver of the light coloured car probably never saw our speedy driver until it was too late. Notice how that driver doesn’t make a move to the right until our speedy driver makes a move to the left — that’s just too late.

• You can learn on-road emergency maneuvers like head-on collision avoidance and rear-end collision avoidance with our Emergency Manoeuvres accident avoidance driving course. Just check the Tuition page of our website to find out details and to Book Now!

Do you agree or disagree with my assessment? Do you think you could/would react the same way?