Most of the cars involved were following too close to begin with.
Presumed New York resident and Redditor /u/BlakLanner shared dashcam footage from I-81 in Syracuse, NY showing the devastating moment when rubbernecking caused a chain reaction resulting in a multi-car collision involving at least three cars.
Check out the video for yourself below.
One crash leads to another [OC]
byu/BlakLanner inIdiotsInCars
As mentioned, the incident happened on a stretch of Interstate 81 in Syracuse, NY right before the Fulton Exit 29N (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As you can see in the video, OP is driving in the leftmost lane conservatively 5 MPH under the speed limit.
Seeing a roadside incident ahead, OP moves over to the middle lane to give the emergency responders some room.
Predictably, rubberneckers slow to take a look.
It’s hard to make out at first glance, but a black SUV and gray Subaru (highlighted in red below) slow almost to a complete stop while rubbernecking.
This causes the blue sedan behind those two to veer from the middle lane to the right, the white SUV to steer out of the way towards the left lane, and a black Subaru WRX STI sedan following both vehicles previously mentioned too closely to veer out into the left lane the same time the blue sedan did.
The Subaru WRX STI clips the blue sedan.
If that wasn’t enough, a driver in a black Toyota Tundra with camper top, maybe driving around the speed limit, but too fast for conditions, rear ends the WRX STI at full speed.
The Subaru WRX STI driver supposedly made it out OK.
“Driver of the middle car says they’re fine. Concussion. But that’s all. Source: family member,” /u/OGivePlunger664 commented.
The consensus in the comments, one I agree with, is that almost everyone was following each other too closely, OP excluded.
“This is what happens when idiots tailgate. Cammer is like the only responsible driver in the video. At least the cop didn’t have to go far from the accident he was responding to to help the new idiots,” /u/_jump_yossarian commented.
“Traveling in the right lane – got over because people are on the shoulder. Almost keeping proper following distance. Got almost all the good boxes checked. But so much better than everyone else,” /u/Tacitus59 replied.
“Damn. That pickup was flying, and showed no awareness of the developing issue ahead,” /u/HobbesNJ added.
Anecdotally and like this video shows, it seems like following each other too closely is more of the norm than the exception.
The rule of thumb is to leave a 3-4 second buffer with the car in front of you on the highway.
It gives enough room to both react and take evasive action (even if that’s slamming on your brakes) just in case of an unexpected highway incident.
If most of those drivers in this video put some space between them and the car in front of them, there’d be fewer of these types of multi-car collisions.
I see cars following to closely every day. I had a bad accident from people following to closely and it triggers me now. I’m aware of how close I am and keep my distance. Tailgating is a real problem and the tailgaters get mad if you slow down a little to get some distance between cars. Police should start giving out tickets.
Y not …while there at it they should give out more j walking tickets also…????
Every day out there you come across so many frigen crazy drivers, no rules , stop signs are ignored,speed limts ignored, allowing cars to merge in where needed, god forbid…such ignorance and entitlement out there, I really don’t want to drive any more.
We are better than this people, care about you fellow human , please, as could be your family that gets injured or die in an accident.