DUI or a sleepy driver? You decide.
Presumed SoCal resident /u/mmuulinn shared dashcam footage from Anaheim yesterday (Oct 7, 2023) taken at around 7:48 P.M. to the /r/OrangeCounty subreddit showing a Jeep Wrangler driver on 91W drifting into lane dividers, losing control, and causing a multi-car collision.
Check out his thread and accompanying dashcam footage below.
Just witnessed this accident on 91W right before the junction to 55S. If anyone happens to know the people involved in this accident please share this dashcam footage with them
byu/mmuulinn inorangecounty
As mentioned, the accident happened on the 91W just before Exit 33 onto Tustin Ave. and the 55S Newport Beach junction (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As OP’s dashcam footage shows, he’s driving in lane #2, the lane closest to the HOV lane separated from the rest of traffic by flexible lane dividers.
In front of him is a Black Jeep Wrangler who he claims was swerving moments earlier.
The Wrangler drifts into the lane dividers, overcorrects, and drives across the entire 91 taking out a Jeep Wagoneer and Honda CR-V, too.
Both the Wrangler and Wagoneer were supposedly going 75 MPH.
It’s absolute chaos.
The Wrangler pivots the Wagoneer towards a slight embankment separating a merging lane with the rest of traffic, both Jeeps sandwiching a CR-V in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Wagoneer launches over the embankment and flips.
The Wrangler goes sideways, catches, and flips, too.
The CR-V is pushed by the momentum of the crash backwards up the embankment.
Surprisingly, a witness and Redditor /u/ungstoppable stopped, ran to assist, and commented what happened in OP’s thread.
“I was just rounding the on ramp when the Jeeps flew over the barricade. CHP was notified. I checked every car (a man and a woman in the black Jeep, a man in the silver Honda, and 2 men and a woman in the white Jeep). I’m glad to be able to say everyone walked out of their vehicles shaken but with no serious injuries.”
Comments are divided as to why the driver in the Wrangler lost control, with the best guesses being a DUI, a sleepy driver or a combination of the two.
/u/ungstoppable provided additional details in response to another Redditor asking about the Wrangler driver in particular.
“Unclear who was driving, but the male seemed fine. Very calm. More in shock and disbelief than anything. When I checked on him, he asked me if he / they also hit my car and was relieved when I said he hadn’t. He was, however, trying to calm down the other passenger. She was very upset/frantic (and looking for her glasses (because she couldn’t see) / one missing shoe (there was a lot of glass everywhere)). At some point, she placed a call to someone. “
Thank God no one was seriously hurt, or worse.
This just goes to show how important defensive driving is.
If the Wrangler driver was indeed swerving moments before, it would’ve been a good idea to put some distance away from them.
Of course, it’s easier to say this in hindsight.
Regardless, it’s a reminder about defensive driving worth repeating.
