Patience is a virtue. We all know this, but we are also guilty of failing to practice it. Our failure to maintain composure is made worse when we’re in a hurry. What can we say? Humans are fallible. However, that’s no excuse for road rage, especially when involving a crash and potential injuries.
Courtesy of a dash cam recording from a transporter, we see the hand of karma on full display regarding the consequences of vehicular mayhem. A member of the Facebook group Dash Cam Owners Australia posted video footage of an afternoon affair between a Mazda 3 hatchback and a Subaru Outback wagon. When and how they met is unknown. What is evident is the unfriendliness of the meetup, which leads to a literal mashup.
The pair are driving on the far right, or slow lane, of a three-lane highway. Via the transport truck’s righthand camera, which lists its posted speed as 101 km/h (63 mph), we see the Subaru speed up as if intending to pass the truck on the right. The Mazda follows suit, only to have the Subie hit the brakes.
At first, it’s a soft tap, as if a warning. Except that almost immediately after, the Subie driver apparently stomps on the brake. The Mazda driver barely avoids the rear bumper smack. If that wasn’t unsettling enough, the dance continues further up ahead with disastrous results. The entire event is caught in its entirety by the transporter’s front-facing dash camera.
After the near-miss, the Subaru does proceed forward and passes the truck but remains in the slow lane. There is just enough of a gap, though, for the Mazda 3 to also pass the truck and change lanes. Wanting to change lanes is a good idea. Remaining behind the Subaru while attempting to do so was the wrong call.
BRAKE CHECK.
The Mazda again avoids a collision with the Subaru but swerves out of the way with too much force, traveling across the highway to the number one lane, where a Land Rover is. Kudos to the Mazda driver for not hitting the sitting duck Rover, but his or her overcorrecting makes the vehicle fishtail back to the other side of the road. Avoiding the shoulder guardrail is a success, but avoiding the transport hauler that’s been recording the entire scene is not.
The Mazda’s driver’s side comes into contact with the truck’s right side. If only the video footage had ended there. Unfortunately, the Mazda ricochets across the front end of the transporter and into the path of another hauler, which was speeding by on the left shoulder. Seems their hurry to move past the chaos only created more mayhem. The Mazda goes into a 540-degree whirlwind before stopping nose-first into a guardrail.
Time lapsed? Forty-one seconds. The Mazda driver was able to exit his vehicle, but it’s unknown if there were injuries or passengers. At that point, the Subaru was far out of the frame. The debate continues as to who was the instigator. Yes, the Subaru caused the crash, but why? Was the Mazda excessively tailgating? Was the Subaru looking for a quick insurance scam payout? But the Mazda needed to crash into the Subie for that to happen. According to the original poster, the truck is part of a fleet of haulers belonging to Brisbane-based Team Transport & Logistics, and police are investigating the incident.