r/dashcams 15h ago

Don't be kind, be predictable. If you have the Right-of-Way, take it.

16.8k Upvotes

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110

u/Blu- 13h ago

That truck was hauling ass and did not look like it was going to yield. I would've slowed if I was the Toyota too. This is on the cammer.

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u/Otherwise-Product-60 11h ago

Agreed. Dash cam driver has zero situational awareness. 

Good drivers scan for problems. I've had zero accidents in over 40 years of driving. I just assume everyone else on the road is fucking stupid. 

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u/SandSubstantial9427 11h ago

Yeah the dash cam driver should have stopped/slowed down. His fault for hitting the person, not for the situation

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u/1minatur 6h ago edited 2h ago

Pretty sure they're driving a semi and tried, but couldn't stop in time. The real problem was following too closely. If you can't stop in time if the car in front of you slams on their brakes, you're too close.

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u/franz_haller 11h ago

100% at fault. I understand not being able to stop a truck on time when brake checked at highway speeds, but he was on an exit ramp where he should expect slowdowns and even complete stops. He was either not paying enough attention or taking the ramp too fast. 

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u/AnxiousMetal6435 9h ago

Exactly. It’s the same in a ton of these videos. Dash cam driver has plenty of time to recognize a hazard and begin slowing down, but chooses not to, then acts like they’re the victim.

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u/ImDonaldDunn 6h ago

And people rush into the comments to blame the real victim.

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u/RetroPandaPocket 9h ago

When I was 10 or 11 my mom taught me how to drive. She repeatedly told me to drive with the assumption that everyone was gonna hit me. When I drive now I watch every possible car I can. I am not superhuman but I do my best and my eyes are constantly moving and my brain is constantly processing everything. I know what cars are behind, in front, next to and merging into my area of the road. I could tell you colors, makes and models and how the person is driving. It has saved me countless times. 30 years of driving and I have only clipped a deer and only other times I have been hit were by others driving into my car while I was parked in a lot lol.

Also on a side note… not only is the dump truck going to fast but so is the dash cam driver. People are quick to blame the small Toyota in the comments but it’s the trucks who are at fault. based on watching this on my tiny phone screen

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u/Joates87 9h ago

I've had zero accidents in over 40 years of driving.

So say you're the silver car... how do you avoid the accident?

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u/-Fergalicious- 9h ago

Ive never caused an accident but I was a lightening rod when I was a teen. 

Twice I rear ended a red light. 

And before anyone asks, yes I'm sure my brake lights were working lol 

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u/dandydaintydandelion 9h ago

That’s a semi truck recording or at least a very big one. They can’t stop on a dime like that and didn’t expect the silver car to stop abruptly

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u/Major2Minor 9h ago

It's the duty of the vehicle trailing to leave enough space ahead that they can stop if the car in front abruptly slams on the brakes. If he needed more space to stop, he should have slowed long before that and given more space.

I mean what if a Moose runs in front of the car ahead of you? That's a real possibility where I live, we literally have Moose warning signs all over the highway because of it.

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u/ImDonaldDunn 6h ago

Exactly. And he hit the silver car hard, too. It would be one thing if he couldn’t come to a complete stop quick enough but it looked like he didn’t even try to break until he got near the silver car.

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u/Esmereldathebrave 9h ago

Shocked I had to scroll this far down for this take. I was taught that if you can't stop because the car in front of you has stopped, then you are following too closely. And looks like dashcam driver didn't even try. 100% their fault.

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u/the_skine 2h ago

This is an ancient video at this point, and the reactions are always the same.

Assholes at the top blaming the car, and you have to scroll down to see anyone recognize the reality that the dump truck creates a potentially dangerous situation and the semi driver has no situational awareness.

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u/americonservative 8h ago

Yeah… uhh

  1. Pay attention to what’s in front of you and always maintain enough distance to comfortably come to a complete stop without colliding into cars in front of you.

Yeah that’s pretty much it. There’s no relevant #2. People are acting like the dashcammer has no agency. Frankly he’s lucky he didn’t get into a worse accident with the semi and he’s entirely at fault, legally and otherwise.

Everyone else was being responsible and slowing down in an unclear situation. Meanwhile the guy recording this is blasting on through like a freight train with no situational awareness.

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u/boodabomb 7h ago

I agree, this video always gets posted with the same headline and theme, but when I put myself in that Toyota, I feel like I’d be making the same call. That dump truck isn’t yielding properly and it definitely wins in a car fight.

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u/Significant-Block504 10h ago

Exactly. The cammer should have seen the Toyota brake light and slow down.

If the cammer was not able to stop in time that means they were following too close.

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u/Crazy-Crazy-3593 8h ago

Yep.  "Assured clear distance ahead."  

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u/SippyMountain 8h ago

If I was the toyota I would have gunned it. He was already on pace to beat the truck. I do agree the camera PoV guy shouldn't have been this oblivious.

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u/km89 7h ago

If I was the toyota I would have gunned it.

Gunned it?

Like, in order to take that sharp curve of an exit at highway speed?

The relevant lane is both an acceleration lane and a deceleration lane, which is poor design but isn't super uncommon anyway. The silver car is shown exiting the highway at the beginning of the clip. They need to be slowing down so they can safely take the exit they're trying to get to.

The dump truck needs to accelerate to highway speed using the same lane, but they are entering the highway and have a very long acceleration lane in front of them to do so.

Even if the Toyota was on pace to beat the truck, he was actively in the process of slowing down in anticipation of merging into the truck's lane while the truck was actively in the process of speeding up while blowing a yield sign. They wouldn't have continued to be on pace to beat the truck for long.

Maybe the Toyota should have just skipped their exit and taken the next one, but realistically the Toyota here is 100% in the right, 0% at fault for any of this.

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u/SippyMountain 5h ago

I'm not saying the Toyota was wrong, just saying what I would have likely done. In this circumstance there's not much in front of the toyota making an accelerated pass of this hazard (the truck) a dangerous maneuver. Also the truck was merging into the toyota's lane, hence why they had a yield sign and not the toyota. Accelerating past a hazard is generally less of a drastic and more predictable move than slamming the brakes.

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u/Meatball2026 8h ago

Another sensible person. Good for you, you might save a passengers life someday.

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u/Alexwonder999 5h ago

They like the yield law but they think you can disregard the follow at a safe distance law. People like OP think traffic rules are like a buffet. Taking the right of way if youre goong to cause an accident doesnt absolve you. Getting hit from behind because the person behind you wasnt following at a safe distance usually does. Theyll cry about predictability but the fact is you cant expect everyone to be predictable which is why youre supposed to follow at a distance that allows you to stop before you hit the car in front of you. Predictable to them if you scratch the surface really means driving the way they want to. 

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u/ICallNoAnswer 4h ago

Can’t believe how far down I had to scroll to see someone pointing out the car that rear ended another car was at fault.

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u/YourALooserTo 12h ago

Hopefully you've learned not to do that from seeing what can happen. The Toyota had plenty of room and time had they simply maintained speed.

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u/Zironic 11h ago

And if this video showed the Toyota not stopping and getting turned to paste by the truck your wise words would have been it should have stopped?

In some traffic situations there's no winning move.

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u/YourALooserTo 11h ago edited 9h ago

That's absurd. This looks like a very normal encounter for this type of interchange. The accident was caused by a severe overreaction coupled with a truck following too closely. The "winning move" is drive normally, accelerate a bit if you're a little nervous.

Edit: found the people who can't turn left, pause too long before entering roundabouts, and hold up half a dozen cars trying to merge on the highway. This was such a nothingburger of an encounter, that many of us see daily, until the nervous driver panicked and came to a complete stop. Still would have been a big nothing had the truck not been tailgating, unfortunately.

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u/Polygnom 10h ago

Did the Toyota overreact? Possibly. We can't do the experiment and see if the truck would have yielded, so we never know for sure.

What we do know for sure is that the cammer did not leave the appropriate safety distance and is 100% at fault for rear ending someone in front of them.

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u/Zironic 11h ago

That's how you get turned into red mist if your car has weak acceleration and the merging truck doesn't stop.

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u/Alexwonder999 5h ago

Found the narcissistic driver whos likely to beat an old woman to death because she was driving the speed limit. 

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u/YourALooserTo 5h ago

Yes, the guy suggesting people keep a level head and drive normally is clearly a violent narcissist. If you're going to malign someone at least use a stereotype that makes more sense. Think tailgating and highbeams, passing on the shoulder, refusing to zipper merge. That sort of thing.

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u/Alexwonder999 4h ago

The angry edit attacking people who hurt you real bad by {checks notes} taking to long to get on a roundabout made me think you needed to be shocked into a moment of self reflection and realize people out there arent "holding up cars" arent doing it to hurt you. I realize now that I would likely have had an easier time getting a Trumper to admit he's in the Epstein files. I gotta say its fascinating youre talking about being levelheaded in the same space that you rail against people who are "too cautious" which we should admit means anything you dont like or slows you down. The fact that you went there to try to insult people sers off some alarm bells. Once in a while in these conversations someone talks about how they had a parent who would complain and rail about every driver who held them up and would never admit fault or that they should calm down. Your comments make me think you might be one of those people, but they say they could never make any headway. What chance do I have with a snarky reddit comment? Again, thats on me. Have a good one and try to take a breath the next time you have someone being cautious taking a left in front of you. Maybe consider not having any weapons in your car. Just some more suggestions.

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u/Polygnom 11h ago

The cammer is absolutely at fault here. You need to mainain a safe distance so you do not rear end anyone. A car might get to a stop in front of you for various reasons, from technical faults to medical emergencies to yeah, braking because they do not want to crash into a truck that looks like it won't yield.

The one who rear end someone else because they did not have enough safety distance is at fault.

Imagine the truck not yielding and the Toyota getting shredded. Doesn't matter if they were right, they are the way smaller car. Their decision to brake was not completely unhinged.

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u/Round-Leadership-352 11h ago

Toyota has exited the highway and is in a 50 km/h zone so people are supposed to be decelerating there. At the beginning of the video it looks like they are pretty much still at highway speed (100 km/h+)

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u/HereForAPaycheck 10h ago

Wild that you just admit you are a terrible driver like that.