This Mom of two pulled over on one of the most dangerous places on a freeway possible for a bathroom break.
Virginian and Redditor /u/HoeMahToe shared truly headshaking dashcam footage from Sterling, VA earlier this August (Aug 11, 2024) showing a Mom recklessly pulled over on the left side of the freeway to let her kids use the bathroom. Unbeknownst to her, her poor dog escaped, ran onto the freeway and, thanks to the driving skills of motorists paying attention, narrowly avoided being hit.
Check out the dashcam footage for yourself below.
Lady pulls over on the shoulder so her kids could pee and didn’t even know her dog escaped [OC]
byu/hoemahtoe inIdiotsInCars
The incident happened in Sterling on VA-28 right after the Old Ox Rd. exit (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As her dashcam footage shows, /u/HoeMahToe drives just passes the Old Ox/ Herndon Exit when she’s shocked to see a dog running into the highway up ahead.
The presumed owner can be seen in front of their red Jeep Grand Wagoneer, unaware of the mayhem happening behind them.
“A dog! Oh, my Goooood!,” /u/HoeMahToe screams as she comes to a complete stop.
The dog crosses in front of OP in Lane #1, runs back to the left shoulder, and then tries to run across the length of the freeway.
Thankfully, approaching cars slow and swerve out of the way in time.
OP pulls over and, with the help of the now-aware owner, gets their dog safely back to the left side of the freeway, securing the pooch.
Those in the comments scolded OP for potentially causing a multi-car collision, stopping the way she did.
In her defense, she says she took a calculated risk and assessed it was safe to try her best to slow down to avoid hitting the dog.
“Traffic wasn’t heavy and nobody was immediately behind me,” she further explained in the comments.
“ I’m not dumb enough to stop like that if it was a risk. I stopped quickly to avoid hitting the dog, and as you can see I immediately pulled over to the median after stopping before trying to lure the dog out of the street, and I didn’t even have to step into the road.”
“..eventually everybody stopped because, thankfully, a lot of people were kind enough today to try and make sure the pup was safe.”
As for the harebrained Mom, here’s where she pulled over, the location where she stopped denoted by a red star.
As you can see, there were plenty of opportunities (hotels, restaurants, and fast food establishments) around her to pull off to find a bathroom
“I went up to and yelled at her after me and my friend got her dog out of the road. She somehow never noticed her missing dog, the barking, honking, or people yelling at her car.”
“Who the he** pulls over on the left shoulder to pee?,” /u/MountainWocky commented.
“This is Idiots in Cars hall of fame material,” /u/Financial_Heart4768 added.
“That family won’t make it far in life if the parents are doing idiotic things like that,” /u/CanITeullUSmThin replied.
Having to use the bathroom on a long drive is just part of life.
But, choosing the left side of a freeway isn’t only dumb, it’s reckless.
At the very least, pulling over to the right side like this location here would’ve been safer.
Even then, the risk of her dog bolting out of the SUV would’ve been the same.
Regardless, the breakdown lane is just that, for emergencies and breakdowns, not meant for stopping to use the bathroom.
It baffles the mind she didn’t just pull into a nearby publically accessible establishment.
But, as they say, common sense isn’t so common.
This is not news. This is someone having a brain fart and being humiliated.
The driver clearly had no common sense to understand the danger she was putting her family in. She just did and logically think things out. but on another note, the amount of advertising on these news feeds is so bad that it blocks out the stories and you have to fight to clear all the advertising just to get back to reading the story. It’s horrible that they really should do something about the advertising. It’s too aggressive and blocks all the news stories, if this continues, I will stop reading these stories. It’s too much trouble just to read.
Well, she voted for Biden and is going to vote for Harris which is a TOTALLY ILLEGAL CANDIDATE by the provisions of the Constitution Unless Joe happens to pass away before the election. YOU CANNOT BE “APPOINTED” as a presidential candidate so all the campaigning is for nought as it stands. I’m just glad the little dog wasn’t hit, but pulling over on the left shoulder in a non emergency situation ? That’s nothing short of braindead !! There’s an exit ramp every couple miles !!
John- no it’s not illegal for PresBiden to endorse VP Harris for President. It is NOT AGAINST the Constitution! Stop
Your lies and speak truth!!