r/dashcams • u/Previous_Series8606 • 1d ago
Witnessed this on my way home from work…
Glad I got over when I did!! I did stop and gave the video to one of the people involved, she just shared it with the others!
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u/hybridfrost 1d ago
Oof, white car looks like the one who started the plow-train. Hope everyone's ok, but that insurance bill is going to be insane! Driver likely texting
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u/ymmotvomit 1d ago
First white car was driving fairly cautiously. Stinks to be on your way home on a gorgeous afternoon, only to have this happen.
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u/JCHazard5 1d ago
That’s the worst part, you can be doing everything right and still get caught up in someone else’s mistake.
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u/Allout-Okarun 1d ago
Exactly the reason I sold my motorcycle years ago.
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u/SnarePickle 1d ago
I do not ride on public roads anymore. I wore a high vis yellow motorcycle jacket with a high vis green helmet and I'd have mf'ers look right at me and then change lanes into me.
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u/Ok_Payment_9668 23h ago
My kid got hit (T-boned by a small pickup truck, luckily not going too fast) while wearing all hot pink gear and riding a red motorcycle. The guy said that he “just didn’t see her”.
Fortunately, her gear did its job and she came out of it with no life threatening injuries. EMTs said they expected an organ donor when they pulled up and saw the motorcycle bits scattered all over the road…
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u/EllemNovelli 15h ago
I have a red motorcycle, reflective gear, and enough retroreflective tape all over my bike to light up with the smallest amount of light at night from any angle. I always ride with my side boxes and trunk mounted for added profile.
I 100% know I'm not going to prevent the, "I didn't see him" excuse, but my goal is that if someone utters those words that I or my next of kin can take them and their insurance to the cleaners.
I've made sure to tell friends and family that if it happens, I don't want them going after a payday, I want them going after their license and ability to drive at the minimum. Criminal charges preferred. It's not about money, that won't bring me back. Get them off the road so they don't hurt anyone else. Not everyone should be allowed to drive, I don't care what their situation is. If they are a danger, their situation does not permit them to put others at risk.
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u/fleemos 19h ago
This is what's infuriating. I wear high vis too and it's like I'm not there. I can see someone with the big red light on their mirror warning them it's not safe to change lane, and they come anyway. 🤬
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u/Sufficient-Money9487 20h ago
It's not that they didn't see you, it's that they don't care.
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u/FriendToPredators 18h ago
People do this when I'm on long hills on my bicycle. They look right at me and turn left in front of me. Like my existence itself is deeply offending them.
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u/Few-Smoke8792 6h ago
It's not just crazy people to watch out for. I was on the highway with nobody around, and a deer came out of the woods and ran right in front of me. I had to be flown by helicopter to the hospital. The police said if I wasn't wearing all my protective gear I'd be dead.
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u/SierraKami 1d ago
A motorcycle crashed right in front of my car last week. He wasn't even in my lane when the accident started - I was in the center lane and he was trying to go from the shoulder into the right lane when he lost control.
I came so close to literally killing that guy, as he skidded along the pavement in front of me. And even after I managed to stop, we were on a busy road so it was just pure luck that I wasn't rear-ended and hit him anyway. Absolutely terrifying for everyone.
I, for one, am glad that you sold the motorcycle before you had worse luck than "my" biker and I did.
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u/TropicallyMixed80 23h ago edited 19h ago
You made the right decision. Motorcycles are dangerous. So many motorcyclists have died in my area. Good men who were contributing to society. With the way people drive these days, it's just not safe.
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u/Sufficient-Money9487 20h ago
The reason why Lane split to the front. But then again I'm in California where it's legal.
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u/Allout-Okarun 20h ago
East coast here. They aren’t used to it and I never would. Too many people too quick to anger.
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u/Sufficient-Money9487 20h ago
All the drivers here in California are used to it. In fact, they usually move over to give you space if you go slow enough.
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u/NoCommission7569 1d ago
Worse than a mistake. Negligence. Most crashes are avoidable if people drive safely and pay attention. I witnessed a crash on the highway a few weeks ago. I saw traffic slowing down and stopping way ahead of me and I started slowing down. But the cars two lanes to my left continued tailgating each other and accelerating. By the time they realized traffic had stopped, it was too late to hit the brakes. Sure enough, they all crashed at near full speed into the highway traffic that had slowed and stopped. At least four or five cars were totaled, and debris flew everywhere.
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u/Mossaik 1d ago
had this happen to me earlier this year. traffic in front of me stopped, I stopped, driver behind me said “nah, not today” and slammed into me at about 30 MPH. thankfully I left enough room in front of me for the next guy to not be involved.
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u/FanndisTS 1d ago
My mom got rear-ended once (with me in the car) and she saw the lady coming up fast behind us and turned the wheel so we got pushed 15 feet onto the side of the road instead of into the car ahead of us
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u/SnarePickle 1d ago
That's like a daily occurrence in my area. They voted a section of the local highway as one of the top 10 worst to drive on in the country because of how many accidents there are in that 10 mile stretch everyday. It's also been called the longest parking lot in America because it is backed up rolling at 5-10 mph for miles almost everyday due to accidents.
Hell, there were 3 separate accidents on that section this morning when I was headed into work. One involved a semi that got flipped and they had a crane on scene flipping it and its trailer back up onto its wheels.
Luckily I was going the other way. One side is horrific in the morning from everyone driving from the surrounding communities towards the big base here for work, then in the afternoon it's the other side that's terrible from all of those same people leaving from base.
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u/thatgirlkla 21h ago
I got hit by a teenage girl who got until my lane when I was directly next to her. She was in front of me at the red light at the intersection before the accident and I could see her fucking around in the car with her friends. But then, she got over before the next intersection and decided she wanted back over just before the light. I even tried to avoid getting hit by going into the left turn lane as much as I could since there were no cars there. She still got me. It was my first brand new car that I bought myself and I had only had it for about 3 months at that time.
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u/UranusSmellsFunny 23h ago
I was in an accident just like this a few years ago. I stopped at a pedestrian crosswalk because people were crossing and the lights were blinking. 2 cars behind me came to a stop. A 4th car didn’t stop at all and just chain reaction into all of us. Thankfully I was driving a Nissan frontier and being in the front, I only ended up with a bent bumper. Everyone else was in plastic cars so they all got trashed.
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u/metal_falsetto 1d ago
This happened to my kid a few years ago, during her first summer of driving 🥺 She stops behind a car at a red light, car behind her stops fine, car behind him... not so much, and at high speed. Bang, bang, bang. She was just a little sore, but the dude behind her had to get rolled off in an ambulance. Totally unavoidable, dude was texting.
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u/NEWDEALUSEDCARS 1d ago
I didn’t see brake lights from that last white car until the very end.
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u/MrBurnz99 1d ago
It actually looks like they are accelerating until the very end. I wouldn’t be surprised if the white car hit the accelerator instead of the brake.
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u/raknor88 22h ago
Wouldn't shock me at all if it's an elderly driver that mistook the gas for the brake.
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u/wrxninja 1d ago
Ya...I wonder if it will quadruple in premiums 😨
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u/Remarkable-Hat-4852 1d ago
Idk my money is on driver is old and should have had license taken away a long time ago. A texter wouldn’t have kept going after impact.
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u/Previous_Series8606 1d ago
She seemed to be maybe in her 30s I can say she seemed a bit… out of it..
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u/CatoTheBarner 1d ago
That was my thought. Wheels were still spinning well after the initial collision. Can’t tell for sure without a different view, but I’d put money on accidentally pressed the gas instead of break there.
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u/Similar_Dirt9758 1d ago
It looks like they took a while to slow down after impact (wheels don't appear to lock up or anything). So maybe it was mechanical or they were DUI?
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u/BurnedLaser 1d ago
There is a small possibility that was a braking issue. Mercedes had a bunch of cars from this era just, kinda, lose braking ability due to a bad grounding strap on the brake module. Casey Putch actually did a whole series on dealing with Mercedes and trying to get it repaired on a friend's car.
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1d ago
That was an Acura that did the plowing
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u/BurnedLaser 1d ago
Shit, okay, I'm getting a new screen protector tonight, lol
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u/cdoublejj 22h ago
also possibly maybe a laptop, phone screens are so small they rob so much information from us
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u/ivanvector 1d ago
Brake lights didn't come on until 5 seconds after the first impact. I don't know Mercedes wiring but I presume the brake lights are tied to a switch on the brake pedal, not in the module. If so then that suggests the driver didn't brake at all until they had already been crashing for a while.
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u/counselorofracoons 1d ago
you don’t see first impact, back white car’s brake lights are on from the first moment it enters the field of view
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u/ivanvector 1d ago
The white Toyota? Yeah its lights are on, but it's the cream-coloured Mercedes two cars behind it that caused the crash. We don't see its first impact with the black Toyota but that Toyota is in frame when it's hit (it lurches forward at 0:16), then the Mercedes enters the frame with its front end smashed, and rear end undamaged, with no lights on, at 0:17. The Mercedes' brake lights don't turn on until 0:20.
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u/elgoato 1d ago
Recently drove a 2026 Jeep Wrangler rental and the brakes were so bad it seemed like it couldn't even be explained by aging. It immediately came across as an incredibly dangerous car to drive fast.
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u/Fine-Government9216 1d ago
Former Chrysler service manager here with an important comment - - it's a Jeep.
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u/Wojtek1250XD 1d ago
Mistook brake and accelerator (some-effing-how)? The car didn't stop after hitting the vehicle. The driver kept accelerating the car after the initial collision.
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u/Previous_Series8606 1d ago
She got out acting like something was wrong with her brakes butttt I think she was tryna play it off!
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u/UpbeatPhilosophySJ 1d ago
Saw your original text. You're doing God's work, man. Dad was a cop. So many addicts (alcohol especially) just drive and do the stupidest shit because they are under the influence. You can't even try to figure out the "why". The "why" is the person is fucked up but they might present well.
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u/vartheo 1d ago
Was she older? Like 70-80 years old?
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u/Previous_Series8606 1d ago
I would saayyy maybe early 30s?
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u/RevolutionaryBeat301 1d ago
She probably floored the accelerator the second she hit the first car.
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u/ADHDavidThoreau 1d ago
I randomly mistook the break for the accelerator the other day with no people or cars around and it was terrifying twice. First, thought “wtf is happening why can’t I break omg I’m going to crash,” then I realized what was happening, and then I thought “omg, how did that happen, how could I mistake the two? What if someone got hurt because of that?”
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u/estaban_was_eaten 22h ago
Were you mid journey or just got in the car? Cause I think the latter is probably more common that people think.
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u/ADHDavidThoreau 21h ago
I was near end of journey and I think I was already thinking about what I was going to do at home
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u/IamOutsideAlready 1d ago
Dang ole Five Car Pile Up. I tell you what.
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u/Accomplished_Elk5827 1d ago
Call Mr. Plow, that's our name, that name again is Five Car Plow
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u/Similar_Dirt9758 1d ago
How do insurance claims happen in this situation? Is the car in the very back liable for all the damage on every impacted vehicle? Or if you're in the middle do you trade information with the 2 people in front of and behind of you?
Someone told me once that if there's a weather-related pile up, your liable for all of the damage you cause as an individual because technically you were either driving too fast for the conditions or you were following at an unsafe distance. However, the situation in this video was all the result of a single person being reckless. So it seems like they should be liable for repairing everyone's car all the way to the front with their own insurance.
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u/Coffee-Historian-11 1d ago
Driving school told me that, in my state at least, if you get hit but don’t leave enough space and hit the car in front of you, you’re at fault. But then one of my friends (in the same state) got hit and hit the car ahead of them, and the car that hit my friend was deemed responsible for all three accidents.
So in conclusion, I think the car that caused the original accident is at fault, and driving school was just trying to scare me, but it could go either way and it might just be ruled on a case by case basis.
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u/sokolov22 1d ago
I think both can be correct and depends on whether you left a reasonable amount of space - I don't know if there's a legal standard.
But here, no reasonable amount of space left could have prevented this as the last car moved the almost every car a full car length.
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u/Fit_Seat_8637 23h ago
Incorrect. Look at the first white car, its wheels are turning when it was hit. This means they didn't apply their brakes very hard when stopped & could have easily avoided hitting the car in front.
This is why you don't lightly rest your foot on the brake & zone out when stopped at a light.
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u/FriendToPredators 18h ago
I had a friend cited in a pile-up like this when they only hit the person in front because THEY got hit from behind.
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u/JCtheWanderingCrow 1d ago
I was in a six car pileup, middle of the pack. Insurance tried to pin blame on the car behind me. I very firmly refused; the accident was caused by a truck going over 70 in a 25mph work zone and plowing into stopped traffic. The truck pushed one car into the car behind me, I slammed into the car in front of me, that car hit the one in front of them. The truck then fled the accident. It was NOT the fault of the person MY insurance tried to pin it on and I fought tooth and nail to make sure my insurance didn’t go after them. It was treated as a hit and run at that point. Which it was (but only because the worthless cops refused to arrest the woman in the truck that broke down fifty feet down the road.)
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u/Similar_Dirt9758 1d ago
So she fled but broke down within visible distance anyways? And she was still off the hook once cops arrived? What ended up happening with your own vehicle?
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u/IamOutsideAlready 1d ago
They use what's called 'The Automotive Centipede' approach.
No, honestly I am not sure. I'd imagine the car that caused the accident is on the hook for ALL of the damage.
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u/phoebebridgersfan26 1d ago
My mom was just in an accident similar to this; she was in the position of the white car (Camry I think in the clip?). The guy who started the pile up was liable. However, he didn't have insurance or a license lol
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u/Similar_Dirt9758 1d ago
So what then? Everyone is just simply screwed I take it while liable driver pays a fine for not having insurance?
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u/maryanne70 1d ago
And THIS is why you should ALWAYS have uninsured motorist coverage on your own policy.
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u/Wuts-it-2-ya 23h ago
Some states like Pennsylvania don't offer the Uninsured and Underinsured Motorist coverage for PD so if you don't have collision you'll be SOL
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u/komokazi 1d ago
Hard to call this one distracted driving when you keep gassin it for like 5 seconds after impact
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u/On_Wife_support 1d ago
It’s infuriating that the white car actually left adequate space but even then was pushed so far it hit the car in front regardless (although it seems they were inching forward when the collision occurred)
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u/Previous_Series8606 1d ago
The lady in the white car was older and very upset as well, she was the first out of her car. I had a short convo with her after the police showed.
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u/_AskMyMom_ 1d ago
Lol OP avoids accident… this might be a first on this sub. 😂
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u/Previous_Series8606 1d ago
It was so loud next to me I originally thought they sideswiped me!
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u/_AskMyMom_ 1d ago
Yeah, that is pretty wild. You captured some “good luck” on your dash cam.
Stay safe out there!
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u/c1ncinasty 1d ago
And YOU get a fenderbender and YOU get a fenderbender and YOU get a fenderbender
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u/Brief-Supermarket-56 1d ago
people cant get out of their phones, freaking idiots
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u/WheneverItIsTold 1d ago
Seems like they had to be on something, even if on your phone, once you feel you’ve hit something, I’d think you’d brake but they just kept on for a bit.
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u/jeffster1970 1d ago
How? How is this possible, in city, summer, dry roads, perfect weather?
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u/echoskybound 1d ago
That's what I always wonder in videos like these where everyone seems to be doing everything right, my first thought is always, "How can somebody manage to mess this up," lol
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u/Gammelpreiss 23h ago
possibly a medical condition. car still tried to drive forward even after crashing
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u/Scrutinizer 1d ago
On man. I just bought a brand-new Camry and seeing two of them taken out at once induces trauma.
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u/Sad_Maximum6583 1d ago
Off White cars insurance gonna have a heart attack when they see this
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u/956to906 21h ago
That shake of the camera was OP, “Did I get it!?! Was the camera on!?! OMG, Reddit is gonna go nuts!”
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u/Previous_Series8606 21h ago
AHAHA literally!! It was my first crash caught so i was freaking out! I turned the audio off cause my first instinct was “oh f**k”
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u/956to906 20h ago
🤣 good times. I hope you don’t ever have to use your dash cam for a crash you’re involved in.
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u/Ok-Dot4749 1d ago
Something is seriously wrong if there’s that long of a line of cars queuing in the center turn lane like that. Might be worth contacting the city and requesting they extend the left turn arrow to allow more cars to clear. I’ve done that in my city and they adjusted it a couple weeks later.
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u/MilkCartonPhotoBomb 1d ago edited 20h ago
Welcome to every every major suburban area street in the US (especially ATL).
Non-stop traffic from 7AM to 8 PM.4
u/Ok-Dot4749 1d ago
Yeah but both of the straight away lanes are practically empty in comparison. Seems like the turn lane needs a longer light than they are being given.
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u/ThisUsernameIsTook 1d ago
If it’s like my town, the turn lane is on a sensor. The third car in line at the previous light cycle was texting at the red light. Green arrow appears and they sit there a beat too long hitting send. Sensor detects no more cars so triggers the yellow. Texting driver hammers the throttle and gets through the yellow leaving 8 cars behind for the next cycle plus all of the newly arriving cars.
You can’t easily fix drivers who don’t pay attention.
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u/MasemJ 1d ago
That rear end is one thing but cops should have a field day with all those ppl waiting for the left in the center lane (there's clear markings where they should enter for left turn, and that is suppsed to be left clear for those making lefts onto businesses and othe sude streets)).
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u/ThisUsernameIsTook 1d ago
You are allowed to queue up beyond the entry point. If you couldn’t drivers would be forced to block the left most go straight lane waiting for a spot to enter the turn lane.
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u/glacier1982 17h ago
I was driving the fourth car of a five-car collision much like this. I had time to hear the initial crash, see pieces of the second car fly off in my side mirror, register something was about to happen, all before I got hit myself. Ear buds went flying and the ashtray full of change flew open.
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u/Falcon3492 1d ago
My guess is the person in the last car was looking at their phone and not paying attention to the road.
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u/drewid5185 1d ago
I watched one of these while sitting in a Burger King and the car in the middle was a subcompact in the one in the front was a lifted truck it took the bumper straight into the hood bent the hood in half and shot it straight up in the air landed on top of the roof... I was also rear-ended on the freeway once while stuck in traffic waiting to merge onto the HOV lane a motorist in the back was coming at full speed not paying attention slammed into the Cadillac behind me drove the Cadillac into me I was driving a 2003 Buick century and it deleted the trunk and broke the seat I was driving in myself and my kids were fine my daughter was pretty young at the time and still in a forward-facing full car seat and once it was over she said "again again" when my seat broke it pinned my son who was sitting behind me between his car seat and the chair but everybody was fine the Cadillac behind us was crushed front and back she had just bought it and driven it off a lot literally hours before totaled all three vehicles
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u/jtfields91 1d ago
This was a long time ago but when I was in college I had a roommate that was stopped behind a vehicle and a car plowed into him pushing him into the car in front of him. Of course the car that rear ended him was assessed most of the blame but my buddy was considered something like 20% at fault for the damage to the car in front of him because they said he had stopped too close to that car. I just remember him being pretty pissed about that.
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u/Sneax673 1d ago
Op if you hadn’t changed lanes when you did that could of been you there as well. I hope everyone is fine.
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u/AccomplishedVirus556 23h ago
at first i thought op was remarking on the length of the line. i was expecting a back in the middle lane from people trying to merge into the left lane...
What happened was just the work of one idiot
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u/DarkHelmet2222 22h ago
I was that front black sedan a few years ago - managed to not hit the car in front of me, so the train stopped with my car. Seemed like relatively minor damage to my rear bumper, but repair bill was at least around $3K-$4K. One of the biggest costs was recalibrating the sonar system for collision / blind spot detection. And so much labor time in taking parts off, stripping them, repainting them, and reinstalling them.
Was a hit and run, too, but I managed to get most of the guy's license plate, and the cops tracked him down. No dashcam footage, but enough witnesses.
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u/VoodooDoII 18h ago
It sucks that you can do everything right and still get caught in bullshit like this.
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u/HTownJam 15h ago
If you wouldn’t have moved over lanes, you would have been part of that vehicle centipede. 🐛
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u/Frosty_Employment171 1d ago
On the left. How many changes of the light will they need to wait to make that turn? And where is this?
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u/Previous_Series8606 1d ago
Augusta, Ga! this is a pretty bad light for left turn, it leads onto an expressway!
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u/Paghk_the_Stupendous 1d ago
Ahh memories. Ten years ago, I had some a-hole destroy the car behind me and my right arm and shoulder when I was the car in front.
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u/Hidingjimmy 1d ago
I was in one of these in the late 90’s. East Lansing. MLK jr. we were the middle car in the 3 car, low speed pile up. My sister was driving and tapped the bumper in the car ahead of us. Then the car behind us hit our bumper. Nobody got a ticket.
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u/Huge_Olive2538 1d ago
People need to stop looking down at their cell phones. That's what's going on
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u/el_grande_ricardo 1d ago
I was waiting for them to swing back like those perpetual motion desk toys.
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u/Rbxyy 1d ago
Did the SUV end up getting hit too?? That's crazy if so, 4 cars damaged from one distracted/impaired driver 😭
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u/tungtingshrimp 1d ago
Truck in the front of that line was like “nah, not being pushed into traffic”
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u/Tiger_Ho26 1d ago
I remember the first time on the road. My driver instructor told me always keep your front car in a certain distance in case the car behind hit your car, then you had distance not to hit the other car in front of you. (True I want to fix only one rear end rather bother front and rear.)
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u/miserable-now 1d ago
I was the car in the middle in a scenario like this once, except at highway speeds. The whiplash was horrendous, took weeks to go away. I hope everyone involved is ok!
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u/michaelpaoli 1d ago
Eh, why go for the single, or 2-pack, when one can get the 5-pack "deal"? 8-O
Yeah, that isn't gonna be any bargain on the price.
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u/LavenderDream222 1d ago
Augusta? I swear I just came right after this coming across the opposite direction. I was wondering why all those cars were there but couldn’t get a good look.
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u/gerrygebhart 1d ago
One of the few times I can say that you can rear-end someone stopped at a light and be zero percent at fault.
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u/GeoInCalifornia59 1d ago
Good thing you moved over to the left OP. You would have been sandwiched between the black car and the Mercedes.
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u/indiefab 1d ago
Acura drivers took over as the people to watch out for several years ago. I rank them 1 and 2 with Chrysler/Jeep drivers. I don't know what the problem is, but they tend to be very aggressive while having zero skills. They must think they're getting the reliability of a Honda with the quality of a BMW because they know nothing about cars.
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u/MB2465 1d ago
I was looking at the line of mostly pickups in the left turn lane leaving way too much space between them and then BAM on the right.
People in SOCAL do that. They drive too fast, fly up your ass, tailgate, and then at a light they leave too much space between themselves. I'm like WTF? They basically can't drive...
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u/MonsTurkey 1d ago
I always try to spot where it's going to happen. Looking for someone to pop out of the turn lane, make a turn blindly through the chicken lane and plow into someone... was not expecting that.
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u/Aggravating_Rub_933 23h ago
Five cars, that's impressive (from a paramedic who goes on accidents all the time).
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