While most agree that the woman driver was in the wrong, many blame the dashcam owner for making an already bad situation that much more stressful.
Presumed Hoosier and Redditor /u/JcDuckDuck shared headshaking dashcam footage to the /r/IdiotsinCars subreddit from earlier last week (Sept 20, 2024) from Bloomington, Ind showing an elderly woman driver overshooting the turn lane she was supposed to use resulting in her driving against traffic and into the wrong turn lane.
Check out the dashcam footage for yourself below.
I’m at a loss for words. [oc]
byu/jcduckduck inIdiotsInCars
The incident happened in the 100 block of W Country Club Dr across from the Grease Monkey Oil Change Center (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As the dashcam footage shows, OP turns into his turning lane headed into Dollar General.
Suddenly, an elderly woman headed towards Grease Monkey skips her turn lane (perhaps on accident) and drives against traffic towards OP.
Instead of stopping, OP continues to drive forward, erasing any maneuvering space between them.
The elderly woman waves at OP, acknowledging her mistake.
At this point, many in the comments think OP was a bit thick, too.
First, several Redditors pointed out that he crossed a solid double yellow line entering his turn lane.
Next, while the other driver was in the wrong, he could’ve easily made it easier on everyone if he had given her some space to maneuver.
“How could she have returned to her normal lane when you stopped so close to prevent movement? Since a reverse was required, might as well complete the left turn at that point,” /u/millllllls replied.
“It wasn’t your job to “punish” her for that mistake, either. She could have hurt someone by causing an accident while doing that backup maneuver that you made her do,” /u/Appropriate_Pressure added.
“I get that she is in the wrong but driving straight up onto her bumper made an already stupid situation even stupider.”
Regardless, OP maintains he was not in the wrong.
“She crossed a double yellow, end of story. And instead of getting back in her normal lane, she continued to impede traffic for an entire other side of the roadway,” /u/JCDuckDuck commented.
The video ends with the woman trying her best to reverse to give herself a bit more turning room before completing her left turn.
While what that lady did is 100% not the right way to make a left turn, I think it’s our job as motorists not to escalate the situation.
OP’s actions did force that woman to reverse into traffic which, given different variables on any other day, could’ve proved dangerous.
All I’m saying is that we don’t drive in a vacuum.
While we should not do something as asinine as turning left from the wrong turn lane, we should afford our fellow drivers a bit of grace, especially when we have the power to do so.
