Moments before this crash, dashcam footage shows another car going in the wrong direction.
This dashcam footage is only a couple seconds long, but a lot is happening.
Presumed Philadelphia resident and Redditor /u/EJones10 shared dashcam footage to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing the hare brained moment a driver going straight down a one-way street decided to turn left, into the path of this dashcam owner, and gets t-boned as a result.
Check out the dashcam video for yourself below.
[OC] We got a twofer
byu/ejones10 inIdiotsInCars
The accident happened at the intersection of N 12. St. and Race St. in Downtown Philadelphia, just as cars go underneath the Pennsylvania Convention Center (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
The short video starts relatively in chaos as a driver, who presumably turned left onto N 12th St (a one way st) heads towards OP in the other lane going the wrong way.
“The first driver might have been confused by both of these one-way signs from this angle,” 5H1N3_0N commented, adding some potentially important context.
Here’s what that driver likely saw from his POV prior to turning left towards OP. Note the confusing one way signs highlighted in red.
OP changes lanes and, like other traffic, is going straight.
Right as she enters the intersection, a driver in a Corolla in the middle lane turns left into the path of OP.
OP brakes as best she can, but ends up T-boning the Corolla’s driver and passenger door at around 17 MPH.
“F***! F***!,” OP shouts out.
OP probably demolished the front of his bumper.
Thankfully, the crash was slow and not hard enough to not trigger her car’s airbags but, if hashed out through insurance, is likely thousands of dollars in damage for both vehicles.
As to why the Corolla turned left, /u/MyBigRed posted up a plausible theory.
“Still stupid, but I bet the Corolla driver may not have realized it was a one-way. Which was reinforced by the person at the beginning of the video going the wrong way, and the fact that everyone is driving in the right lane.”
“SEPTA bus driver probably wasn’t even fazed by the idiocy showcased in this video, just another normal day in Philly lmao,” /u/nickwrocks1 added.
“The real crime here is that music,” /u/ThrowingTheRinger replied, one comment that was pretty much half the comments in OP’s thread.
Besides going a little slower and being extra vigilant, I don’t see what OP could’ve done differently to avoid this crashing into the other driver.
It should be a reminder to stay extra vigilant, especially in city driving without much room and often confusing signage like this area.
Thankfully, they had a dashcam, which should make their insurance process a little easier (hopefully.)
Here’s yet another reason to get a dashcam if you already haven’t.
