As far as places to break down go, the freeway is easily one of the worst, especially at night. Unfortunately, a flatbed truck did just that recently on I-15 in Utah, and from what it seems from this video, the driver failed to put reflective warning signs behind the trailer.
To make matters worse, the truck didn’t even pull over onto the shoulder cleanly, and left the trailer sticking out directly in the path of drivers utilizing the first lane.
While this incident took place at night, the visibility was okay as far as we can tell. On top of that, there was even a good Samaritan who pulled over to the side of the road and began waving a light around the 23-second mark, warning other drivers to slow down.
It’s possible that the dash-cam vehicle then wanted to do the same, although despite the initial warning, another car did stop just behind the trailer and had to wait for an opportunistic moment to switch lanes. Then, tragedy struck when what appears to be a red sedan plowed directly into the trailer at high speed.
What’s equally troubling is the fact that the driver only applied the brakes a split second before the impact took place, which suggests they might not have been paying attention to the road ahead. Still, we can only hope that the injuries sustained weren’t life threatening, and that the seat belt and airbags did their job.