The driver of a 2017 Honda Civic has come within mere inches of rear-ending a VW Golf at high speeds in a near miss that was easily preventable.
Last month, YouTuber Morty Smith was filming a fuel consumption video about his Civic while on the German Autobahn. Onboard footage shows that he was traveling at speeds of up to 213 km/h (132 mph) along a two-lane section when he started to approach a series of vehicles in the slower-moving right lane.
The YouTuber initially passes a van with no issues but a black VW Golf in the right lane then starts to indicate and changes into the fast lane occupied by the Civic. With just a split second to react, the driver of the Honda jumps on the brakes at 207 km/h (128 km/h) to avoid rear-ending the VW. The Honda sheds speed quickly and the owner was able to avoid hitting the VW by just a few inches after quickly pulling into the right lane at the last possible moment.
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The video shows that the Honda’s collision avoidance system was activated in the near-miss but writing in the comments, the driver says he did all the braking and that the system simply couldn’t react as quickly as he did. He also claims that the driver of the VW was on her phone, hence why she didn’t see him approaching in the fast lane.
It appears that the VW Golf was traveling at around 110 km/h (68 mph) at the time and had the driver of the Honda not reacted at all, he would have slammed into her while going almost 100 km/h (62 mph) faster. This could have triggered a severe crash and left both drivers injured, if not worse.