Dashcam footage shows the terrifying moment the Equinox loses control and slides into view.
Presumed San Diego County resident and Redditor /u/Sigmat shared dashcam footage to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing the terrifying moment a driver in a mid-’00s Chevrolet Equinox loses control at extreme speed and careens out of control towards OP.
/u/SigMat’s thread and video is embedded below.
[oc] Inches from being much worse
byu/sigmat inIdiotsInCars
The incident happened near the intersection of Sweetwater Springs Blvd. and the exit/entrance onto SR-94 in Spring Valley, CA located in the greater San Diego County area. (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
In the dashcam footage, we can see /u/SigMat exiting SR-94 into Spring Valley like any normal driver would.
It’s hard to make out in the camera footage, but shortly after two seconds you can see a white SUV hit something near the Wienerschnitzel in the distance (about here on Google Maps) turn 90 degrees, and skid out of control at an extreme rate of speed.
Other Redditors speculate this might be a case of losing grip or overcorrecting.
I think the Equinox driver was speeding, realized they were coming up to a red light a little too late, braked hard, and lost control.
The driver in the Equinox sideswipes OP and, as his thread title says, it was “inches from being much worse.”
“…we are unharmed – thanks to side air bags honestly, and the fact that the impact was toward the B pillar and not more frontal,” OP clarifies in a reply to another Redditor.
“Our car spun around the engine block kinda – and we deflected the impact instead of absorbing it. Even if we had reacted in time to pull to the side… our friends behind us would have gotten the full brunt of it instead.”
“The driver of the other car was arrested and uninsured, and there were kids in the car, too.”
This unfortunate incident illustrates how unpredictable people on the road can be.
From where OP was coming from, you’d think there’s no way an accident like that could happen, yet, it did.
This just goes to show how important it is to practice all the right risk mitigation, and that means wearing your seatbelt, making your car as safe as possible, and most importantly, practicing defensive driving at all times.
Oh, and if you don’t already have a dashcam, it would behoove you to install one.
