A NJ rural road commuter and a homeowner on his ride-on lawn mower are happy to be A-OK after both were involved in an easily avoidable accident.

Update: 10/30/2024 – The dashcam owner has deleted his https://www.reddit.com/r/IdiotsInCars/comments/1gbhhmn/oc_guy_on_a_ride_on_lawn_mower_pulls_a_u_turn/, although his thread and comments still remain.

Presumed New Jersayan and Redditor /u/TheGeneralCat shared surprising dashcam footage from Highstown from earlier last week (Oct 24, 2024) to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing a homeowner on a ride-on lawn mower pulling a u-turn in front of him, causing him to hit his mower at a relatively low speed.

Check out the dashcam footage below and his Reddit thread linked here.

[oc] Guy on a ride on lawn mower pulls a U turn without even looking
byu/TheGeneralCat inIdiotsInCars

The incident happened on a stretch of Allens Rd in Highstown (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)

As OP’s dashcam footage shows, he’s driving along this stretch of rural road when, according to his retelling of the situation, he spots a man on a ride-on lawn mower cutting at the edge of his property and close to the road.

OP moves into the opposite lane to give the ride-on lawn mower rider some space as he passes.

The man on the mower is not paying attention as he pulls a U-turn right into OP’s path.

OP tries his best to slow down but only gets down to around 25 MPH.

Their vehicles collide, the ride-on lawn mower bearing the brunt of the collision.

“Post accident the officer looked at my dashcam video and the person who was driving the lawn mower admitted that he didn’t look before turning. I saw him mowing the strip of grass near the edge of the road so I wanted to give him room. Both he and I walked away uninjured.”

“He was mowing on the lawn. He was never in the road until the U-turn,” OP clarified.

“He was off on the road so homeowners won’t cover it most likely, his auto insurance definitely won’t since it’s a lawn mower, so he has to pay out of pocket most likely. Front end (of the mower) is practically destroyed as the hood, bumper, grille, and headlight are damaged. The worst part is the parts are aftermarket.”

OP’s car didn’t get nearly as damaged.

“…Car can be fixed, besides I love working on my car so it’ll be back soon enough hopefully.”

There isn’t anything more OP could’ve done in this situation. Had he not veered slightly out of the way, this could’ve ended up differently, to say the least.

As for that lawn mower guy, it’s a cautionary tale to take care when mowing, especially when your property is near traffic.