Charlottesville, VA: Confused Truck Driver Nearly T-Bones Car in New Hydraulic Road/Hillsdale Drive Roundabout, Ends in Argument & Apology

This dashcam owner captured the moment he almost got T-boned at this less-than-a-week-old Charlottesville roundabout.

Presumed Charlottesville resident and Redditor /u/Gillsamill shared eye-opening dashcam footage from earlier this August (Aug 12, 2024) from the new Hydraulic Rd/ Hillsdale Dr. roundabout to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing the moment a driver in an expensive and large GMC Sierra Denali HD AT4 almost T-boned him because he doesn’t know how to yield properly.

Check out his dashcam footage below.

[RedTiger F7N] “I would have f***ing crushed you, dude”
byu/gillsamill inDashcam

As mentioned, the incident happened at the new Hydraulic Rd/ Hillsdale Dr. Roundabout in Charlottesville that just opened up less than a week before (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)

As OP’s video shows, he’s entering this new roundabout from the Kroger exit.

As this PDF infographic from VDOT (linked here) shows, drivers entering the roundabout from Kroger can either immediately turn right or head straight into the roundabout, yielding to drivers already in the circle.

A driver in a black GMC Denali AT4 2500HD can be seen approaching the roundabout from Hydraulic Rd from the left.

As OP is already in the roundabout, drivers approaching the roundabout must, as mentioned, yield their right of way to traffic already in the circle.

The GMC Denali driver also has a yield sign to remind him that.

The Denali driver wrongly assumes OP would yield the right of way to him as he entered, which is the exact opposite of what he’s supposed to do.

Both swerve and brake to avoid hitting each other.

“What are you f***ing honking at me for, dips***?,” OP says out loud.

Perturbed, the driver in the GMC Denali pulls up next to OP and they begin talking in the middle of Hillsdale Dr.

“…I have to, you have to yield, dude,” the Denali driver wrongly states.

“I don’t have to yield. Everyone coming into the (traffic circle) has to yield. I promise you that.”

Both sort of pull over in front of the entrance to Whole Foods, the Denali driver climbing outside to inspect whatever damage that didn’t happen.

The Denali driver then points out how heavy his truck is, wanting OP to realize that, it would behoove him to let him wrongly take the right of way because of the sheer size difference.

“Be careful, man. You realize if I hit you, I would’ve just crushed your entire car…this thing weighs, like, 10,000 pounds. You would’ve got f***ed up.”

OP then explains how, besides dodging the Denali driver differently, there’s nothing he would’ve done differently.

“There’s’ nothing I should have or could have done differently, there.”

“Last time I checked, you don’t come straight across the intersection like that,” the Denali driver fires back.

But, if you refer back to the infographic, OP did everything correctly.

OP does wrongly say the Denali driver couldn’t go straight where, again, if you refer above, he could.

Regardless, he was in the traffic circle and the Denali driver must yield his right of way to him.

The black Denali driver, somewhat realizing he’s in the wrong, actually apologizes to OP, doubling down on how big his truck is.

“I’m sorry, dude. I’m glad I didn’t hit you. This thing will crush you. You don’t have a kid in your car, do you? I would’ve taken out your whole side.”

“Holy crap, an interaction where the person in the wrong actually apologized in the end. I mean, he’s still an incredibly huge douche and a terrible driver, but that was unexpected,” /u/XeoSP commented.

“Forget about traffic laws, “Dude, I mean this thing will crush somebody!” is the reason he wanted you to yield instead? Is that why he bought a big truck then? Weird he brought up someone risking their kids against his vehicle. I dunno, maybe the dangerous reality of it all dawned on him at that moment,” /u/aDuckk pointed out.

It doesn’t matter whose vehicle is bigger, the rules of the road evenly apply to everyone.

While, yes, larger vehicles will “f*** up” smaller ones in a collision, it’s both drivers’ responsibility to follow traffic rules, which will ultimately translate to fewer collisions.

As this is a new roundabout, as one Redditor points out, there will likely be a lot more of these kinds of misses, not to mention actual collisions.

“…whenever a city builds a new unfamiliar traffic circle there always a bunch of accidents for the first few months,” /u/Kevin69138 comments.