For many car enthusiasts, the Autobahn is viewed as motoring nirvana, but things can turn from sweet to sour in the blink of an eye, as this video shows.
This clip was filmed from the helmet camera being used by the driver of a BMW M4 and shows him hitting speeds of around 174 mph (280 km/h). At the 15-second mark, the BMW driver is quite late to brake to avoid a slow-moving hatchback in the fast lane but when it gets out of the way, he quickly hits the throttle once again and starts to accelerate to over 167 mph (270 km/h).
However, at the 48-second mark of the clip, a maroon-colored Mazda3 changes into the fast lane to overtake a Ford Fiesta, crossing directly into the path of the BMW.
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The M4 driver is forced to slam on the brakes to avoid rear-ending the Mazda and apparently managed to slow from 174 mph to 87 mph (140 km/h) in just a few seconds. Had the BMW driver been a little later to react or had the Mazda driver made the lane change a touch later, the two might have collided and the results may have been devastating.
One could say that the driver of the Mazda is primarily to blame for the near-miss. Changing into the fast lane of the Autobahn isn’t something you should ever do without getting a good look at your mirrors to ensure there is no fast-moving traffic behind you. The M4 driver should have also been more careful and perhaps lifted off the throttle while passing slower traffic.