- Dashcam footage shows a Ford F-150 driver brake-checking another car in Portland.
- A nearby police officer quickly spots the aggressive driving and initiates a traffic stop.
- Oregon law classifies brake checking as a Class B traffic violation with a $1,000 fine.
Bad drivers are everywhere. In fact, some aren’t just bad, they’re intentionally aggressive. Despite that, very few ever seem to end up getting held accountable for their actions. In a new video out of Portland, Oregon, a police officer is seemingly waiting in the wings to deliver karmic justice to one such driver.
This incident happened on the afternoon of December 9 on NE Halsey St. While we don’t get a view of the events that led up to it, it’s clear that the driver of a Ford F-150 is moving about the world aggressively. It’s unclear what sort of car the dashcam video comes from, but we can see that it’s traveling in lane two.
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The Ford driver overtakes the dashcam car and immediately slams on the brakes. The driver of the camera car slows down, provides quite a bit of space for the Ford and then goes on. Only a few moments later, once both cars are back up to speed, the truck driver abruptly comes to a complete stop. In fact, the stop is so hard that the truck visibly shifts its weight.
The camera car driver still manages to avoid a collision. The F-150 driver seemingly didn’t realize that a police officer was coming up in the first lane. Initially, it seems as if the officer is simply going to talk to the truck driver. We see the police car passenger side window roll down but then the truck driver moves on down the road.
Almost immediately, the police officer turns on his emergency lights and begins a traffic stop. From there, it’s anyone’s guess as to how the conversation went. As Tire Meets Road points out, brake checking is subject to a maximum fine of $1,000 in Oregon as a Class B traffic violation. That would be a pretty stiff penalty but no doubt, this truck driver had a serious lapse of judgment.
The dashcam owner posted the video to Reddit with no additional context about the situation. Others in the comments might have shed some light on the situation though. Evidently, this happened at a part of the road where the speed limit dips from 30 mph to 20.
“Yes!!!! NE Halsey Street in Portland OR! Speed limit drops from 30MPH to 20MPH for a short stretch and many drivers turn into a**holes. I’m SO happy to see some justice here,” /u/TheLastLugnut said. Let’s all be careful, calm, and courteous out there. It’s the right thing to do and it’ll likely save us all some money too.