Shocking dashcam footage of the moment a semi-truck crashed into a BMW on a California freeway has gone viral.
Posting in Reddit's "Idiots in Cars" forum last week under the username u/PizzaAndWingsPlease, the owner of the dashcam footage said that, after ensuring both drivers were okay, they offered to share the footage with those involved in the accident, presumably for insurance purposes.
The post has garnered roughly 44,000 upvotes and over 3,200 comments from Redditors who praised the driver for offering assistance.
"First time ever catching a crash on my dashcam," u/PizzaAndWingsPlease wrote.
The Crash
The video is taken from a vehicle in the right lane of a two-lane highway. Directly ahead of the car with the dashcam is a black convertible. A semi-truck is in the left lane. The convertible and the semi-truck come side by side for a moment.
About 12 seconds into the clip, the truck signals that it will merge into the right lane, but it hasn't cleared the BMW. So when the truck begins to merge behind the convertible a few moments later, it consequently crashes into the BMW, ripping off the rear bumper of the car.
The truck attempts to swerve back into the left lane, but it ends up pulling the BMW along for the ride. Fortunately, the BMW manages to get back into the right lane before the semi-truck winds up in the road's dirt median on the left.
Once the drivers have regained control of their vehicles, the BMW, the semi-truck and u/PizzaAndWingsPlease all pull over to the side of the road.
The Aftermath
"Good on you for stopping, presumably to let them know you had footage," commented u/xentralesque.
In response, u/PizzaAndWingsPlease said: "Yup, that's exactly what I did. If I'm ever involved in a crash and someone caught it on camera, I would hope someone would do the same."
On its website, Progressive explains that dashcams can help lower drivers' insurance rates, by proving who's at fault for an accident.
"While savings may not be directly offered...there may be insurance benefits from installing cameras in your car. For example, dashcam recordings may be useful in capturing videos to provide supporting evidence for insurance claims," the company said. "A saved recording of an event that damages your vehicle or others' can expedite the claims process and prove that you're not at fault in a collision."
With this information in mind, many other commenters also praised u/PizzaAndWingsPlease for offering to share the footage with those involved in the accident.
"Not much doubt about who caused that one thanks to your dashcam," wrote u/ablokeinpf.
"YOU are an exceptionally good driver since you filmed it and then pulled into the scene to share your info. Well done, and hope everyone was okay," said u/danktle.
Redditor u/PrincessPaisleysMom1 added: "Wow!!! Good for you on stopping. I hope that's the last accident you get on cam."
Newsweek has reached out to u/PizzaAndWingsPlease for comment.
u/PizzaAndWingsPlease's post isn't the first from the "Idiots in Cars" forum to go viral in recent months.
Earlier this month, dashcam footage of a driver being hit twice by the same car went viral with more than 51,000 upvotes.
In April, a strange "hit and run" video that showed a motorist slamming into a parked car amassed more than 60,000 upvotes.
Uncommon Knowledge
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About the writer
Sara Santora is a Newsweek reporter based in Florida. Her focus is reporting on viral social media posts and trends. ... Read more
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