A quick-thinking truck driver prevented a potentially deadly crash in the United States last week.
This dramatic dashcam footage was captured on March 16, 2020 in Goleta, California and filmed from the dash of a truck traveling Northbound on U.S. HWY 101 on a rainy day.
At approximately the 28-second mark of the video, a black vehicle traveling in the opposite direction to the truck can be seen sliding across the road after the driver lost control. The black vehicle jumps a curb separating traffic and slides into a guard rail on the side of the highway. This is where things got really close.
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The cammer was driving in the right-most lane of the highway and was just a few hundred feet away from the black minivan as it hit the guard rail. Thanks to some quick reflexes, the truck driver was able to swerve to their left at the very last second to avoid T-boning the minivan.
Writing on YouTube, the truck driver says that the minivan did make contact with the trailer but said everyone was okay. What makes this near-miss particularly frightening is the fact that there was a young child sitting in a baby seat in the minivan and had the trucker not been so quick to react, the truck would have slammed into the side of the minivan, potentially injuring, if not killing, the young child and the other occupants.
It’s impossible to say what caused the minivan driver to lose control in the first place but the vehicle could have aquaplaned in the slippery conditions.