While the RAV4 driver was clearly in the wrong, the dashcam owner’s reaction is questionable, too.
Presumed Salt Lake City resident and Redditor /u/ThisCatMcnern shared dashcam footage to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing the surprisng moment a driver in a Rav4 casually makes a right turn over two lanes, almost causing an accident with another driver fast approaching.
/u/ThisCatMcNern’s post and video is embedded below.
[OC] Lady wondered why I pulled into her lane…
byu/Thiscatmcnern inIdiotsInCars
As mentioned, this happened in Salt Lake City at the intersection of E 4680 S and 900 E near The Royce apartments (exact location on Google maps linked here.)
I’ve also posted the other driver’s POV for reference, too.
As his dashcam shows, OP is driving along in the leftmost lane in the 4600 block of 900 E street.
As he approaches the intersection, he sees a driver in a RAV4 take a right turn and assumes she sees him and will stay in the right lane.
Not so, as the RAV4 driver casually drifts into OP’s lane, causing him to swerve into the center turn lane to avoid a collision.
It’s worth noting that OP doesn’t seem to slow for the yellow light nor the woman turning right as a defensive driving technique, two main points many in the comments are arguing over.
His use of the merger lane was also questionable, an action he defends.
“It’s (the merger lane) for turning left both from and to that street. You can travel from 200-500 feet in that lane. In Utah, it is 500 feet, I traveled less than 350 feet.”
And, for some odd reason, after narrowly avoiding the RAV4, he stops at an angle in front of her, blocking traffic.
“I was driving into oncoming traffic. Not a good place to keep going. Also only 2 lanes in this directions came to a stop almost entirely in the right lane. Believe it or not but braking while swerving does not give you great control of the car.”
“Your braking game could use some work but yeah, never trust someone to turn into their closest lane,” /u/boiledham comments.
“Both of y’all are idiots,” /u/Massive-Dragonfly877
As of this blog post, OP’s thread has over 12,200 upvotes, one of the Top 10 posts in September because of how much debate in the comments it stirred up, spurred on by OP defending his actions.
I don’t think OP had enough time to slow properly for the upcoming red light, and was well within his means to keep going through the intersection.
I do think he could’ve slowed a bit earlier in anticipation for the RAV4 driver’s potential hare brained move.
If he was frazzled after the fact, he also should’ve pulled safely to the side of the road to collect his thoughts instead of blocking traffic.
As /u/Massive-Dragonfly877 said, both were idiots in this case.
