Failing to gauge how fast traffic is slowing in front of you is one of the many reasons why texting while driving is verbotten.
Presumed Oregonian and Redditor /u/SolaraScott shared dashcam footage to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing the hare brained moment a driver on the Sunset Highway (US 26) in Portland crashed into the car in front of them because they were supposedly texting while driving.
Check out the video for yourself below.
[oc] Texting and driving driver crash
byu/SolaraScott inIdiotsInCars
The accident happened near the bottom of Sunset Hill on the Sunset Highway (US 26.) Exact location on Google Maps linked here.
As the dashcam video shows, OP is travelling in the left most lane of US 26, following the offending driver at a safe distance.
Unbeknownst to the driver, traffic in front of him starts to slow.
We can see the Corolla driver is already pre-emptively braking (as his brakes are on, shining bright) but when he sees the car in front of him slowing, it’s too little too late.
The driver does his best to veer out of the way, but slams into the side of the highway divider and into the car in front of them.
“This driver was texting and driving, and underestimated how quickly traffic was slowing down in front of him,” OP captioned his video.
“At least he tried to avoid damaging others s***,” lol,” /u/Full-Nature3877 commented.
“Guy was pressing his own brakes for over 10 seconds and still decides it’s a good time to take his eyes off the road to text. That kind of decision-making should cost him his license,” /u/Kougar replied.
Texting while driving in Oregon is obviously against the law, but is also subject to a $110 fine before all the fees are tacked on.
In this driver’s case, they’ll have a headache with their insurance as their agent sorts the situation out.
