As far as potentially tragic near-misses go, few are crazier than this. Indeed, if you can watch the video below without flinching, you have more nerve than us.
This clip, recently shared on YouTube, was captured in Hagerstown, Maryland and shows the moment an inattentive Honda Accord owner pulled off a highway shoulder directly into the path of an oncoming, fast-moving semi-truck.
The dashcam shows the Accord pulling out in front of a Toyota Camry that was also parked on the shoulder. Fortunately for the Accord driver and its occupants, the truck driver was able to brake and swerve around the sedan without making contact. If the trucker hadn’t been so quick to react, they would have slammed into the rear of the Honda with a speed difference of at least 50 mph (98 km/h). It certainly would not have been a pretty sight…
In all likelihood, the Accord owner was probably distracted when pulling out of the shoulder and/or didn’t check out their mirrors.
Good thing that, despite its speed, the truck managed to avoid the Honda. Due to their sheer size and weight, semis cannot brake or steer as fast as a passenger car. Better make sure you double-check those mirrors, then; after all, that’s what they’re there for.