A driver in an F-150 in downtown Pekin almost sideswiped this dashcam owner after careless lane changes.

Illinoisian and Redditor /u/DeathDonky93 shared head-shaking dashcam footage from earlier this week (Oct 22, 2024) from Perkin, Ill to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing a driver in a Ford F-150 changing multiple lanes without yielding to existing traffic properly.

Check out /u/DeathDonky93’s dashcam footage below.

[OC] This is my lane now.
byu/DeathDonky93 inIdiotsInCars

The incident happened near the intersection of Margeret St. (IL-9) and N 3rd St. (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)

As OP’s dashcam footage shows, he’s driving along Margaret St in the left-hand lane.

As he goes over the train tracks, a driver in a white Ford F-150 merges onto Margaret St. from the slip lane on N 3rd St. and proceeds to pull a multiple-lane change maneuver without properly yielding.

“The video starts with me around 45 MPH. I slowed for the tracks and accelerated back to the speed I was at.”

“Yes. I slowed down then accelerated back up to speed. I had green lights, was in my lane, and had the right of way. “

“The truck literally cut across 3 lanes of traffic after not yielding as per the law…”

The truck narrowly avoids hitting OP as OP can be heard laying on his horn.

OP then follows OP for a turn, sure to get the driver’s license plate on video for reference.

“Lots of people in the comments who seem to think it’s perfectly fine to change multiple lanes at once and just hope everyone stays out of your way,” /u/appa-ate-momo pointed out.

“The same thing happened to me this am on a local interstate. People really need to understand that if I’m already on the interstate and you’re merging onto said interstate, I have zero obligations to slow down and/or speed up or change lanes to let you merge. Especially when you have like a 1/2 mile to get over. Lady was like “I change laaaaaaaness, NOW,” /u/Father-of-zoomies related to others.

Still others, like this Redditor below, believe OP accelerated on purpose when, as he mentioned, he maintains he was just accelerating back up to the speed limit or thereabouts.

“Why did you accelerate quite over the speed limit to block them from switching lanes OP? Not saying it’s okay for the white truck to switch multiple lanes in one go, but also they had a small opportunity to switch lanes and they have been signaling the entire time,” /u/WhitePetrolatum commented.

“Next time try being nice. An accident serves no one.”

Regardless, OP did have the right of way and, according to DriversEd.com, you should only change lanes when it’s 100% safe to do so, and that means doing your due diligence of checking your mirrors and blind spots.

Drivers in at least one Illinois County cited for an improper lane change are subject to a base fine of $164.

As someone who also drives in what’s considered a small town USA-like place, it’s easy to get complacent with local traffic.

It’s at those moments that we need to be just as careful, if not more so, behind the wheel as if we are driving in downtown New York.