Even a legal overtaking maneuver almost ended in near disaster.
Presumed Utahn and Redditor /u/wellyesbutnof***off2 shared heart-pounding dashcam footage from earlier in July (July 29, 2024) from State Route 30 near Logan to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing a driver’s legal overtake almost ending in disaster as a semi entering the highway from a construction zone caused the overtaker to swerve out of the way, coming within feet of a head-on collision.
Check out the shocking bit of dashcam footage below.
[OC] Guy almost drives into a semi overtaking me
byu/wellyesbutnofuckoff2 inIdiotsInCars
The incident occurred on a stretch of Utah State Route 30 in Logan (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As the dashcam video shows, /u/wellyesbutnof***off2 is driving along on this two-lane highway at near the speed limit, which he claims is 60 MPH in this area.
Suddenly, a driver in a GMC Yukon speeds by him, overtaking him at well above the speed limit.
To be fair, it was completely within his rights to overtake at that location, with no solid yellow lines prohibiting overtaking.
Unfortunately for that driver in a Yukon, a driver in a semi coming out of a construction zone chose that exact time to merge onto the highway at the same time the Yukon was headed his way.
To avoid what would’ve been a nasty head-on collision, the driver in the Yukon cuts in sooner than expected, forcing his Yukon to the limits of its cornering ability at that speed.
Thankfully, the Yukon makes the lane change in time, coming within yards of the semi.
“I’m going to give the other driver a break on this. When he started to pass, the truck wasn’t even on the road. Was already back over before the truck was on the road. Looks like he was speeding, but I don’t see a sign or know the road’s speed limit,” /u/Gortez33 commented.
“Agreed. Looked like a legal passing area (dashed line). And truck was coming onto the road from a non-marked road/construction area,” /u/Wolf99660 concurred.
“Unquestionably, the semi-driver did something wrong. Even if the truck was in the wrong, the semi has no business pulling into him. The semi driver was looking in his side mirror to see traffic behind him, but didn’t bother to check ahead before pulling out, which he MUST do precisely because it’s a passing zone,” /u/cwm9 pointed out.
This just goes to show that, even when you do everything right driving defensively, there are variables, like semis entering your passing zone, which you have no control over.
This is a warning for all drivers, not just semi-drivers, to look both ways when entering a highway, even though your lane is only headed one way.
As /u/cwm9 points out, it’s on the onus of the merger to watch out for cars in both directions when merging into a passing zone.
That stretch of hwy 30 is under reconstruction.
There are “No passing” signage all along the construction area, which is several miles long.
Along with signage that states that trucks are entering and exiting the road .. The passing vehicle was in the wrong !! That truck driver was doing his job perfectly.. He is piloting a 100,000 lb. vehicle around around the difficult situation of a construction site and an active highway full of people that are not paying attention to their driving.. You wouldn’t “cut-off” a train, but will cut-off a truck that’s weighing in at 80,000 to 120,000 lbs. (that would take half a football field to stop.) Every day !!!