Wrong-way drivers are some of the scariest things to encounter on the highway and, last year, AAA noted that they cause approximately 500 deaths in the United States annually.
Thankfully, this Mercedes driver didn’t become a statistic as their quick reaction avoided an almost certain tragedy.
As you can see in this video noticed by Redditors, a handful of vehicles are traveling on a highway in what is said to be Poland. Everything seems relatively normal, but the observant among us will notice that two different semis are flashing their high-beams.
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The reason isn’t immediately clear, but a pair of headlights soon appear in the same lane as the Mercedes. This causes the Mercedes driver to slam on the brakes and quickly change lanes. After some slight fishtailing, they recover as the video comes to an end. While some people have chalked this up to skill, others have suggested Evasive Steering Assist played a role in the deft recovery.
It remains unclear what happened to the wrong-way driver, but hopefully the close call was enough to get their attention. Even if not, the semi drivers deserve a lot of credit for trying to warn approaching motorists.
While this incident reportedly happened overseas, the AAA study found the odds of being a wrong-way driver increased with alcohol-impairment, age, and driving alone. Alcohol was the single biggest factor as 60.1 percent of wrong-way drivers in the study were found to have a blood alcohol concentration of at least 0.08.