A firefighter from the Oxon Hill Volunteer Fire Department Station 842 was caught on dashcam giving a road-raging BMW driver a taste of their own medicine.
Marylander and Redditor /u/MiseryMistress shared dashcam footage from Oxon Hill from earlier this year (Apr 25, 2024) to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing an Oxon Hill firefighter giving an impatient BMW driver a taste of their own medicine by blasting their fire truck’s air horn at the driver who’d been honking at Oxon Hill Emergency Services for up to 15 minutes prior.
Several cars, including the BMW and /u/MiseryMistress, were trapped in an isolated right turn-only lane with nowhere to go as EMS responded to a rear-end collision.
Check out /u/MiseryMistress’s dashcam footage below.
[oc] bmw driver thinks nonstop honking will get EMS to work faster..
byu/miserymistress inIdiotsInCars
The incident happened at the intersection of Wheeler Road and St. Barnabas Rd (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As OP’s dashcam footage shows, she’s stuck in a slip lane. With a raised, concrete island, cars in the slip lane had nowhere to go.
“(I) was driving home from work during rush hour and had to take this isolated right turn lane that yields to perpendicular traffic. One car at the front rear-ended another so those of us already in the lane were stuck with nowhere to go while EMS responded and before they were able to move the vehicles out of the way”
“Probably sat for 10-15 min. The ENTIRE time, this BMW driver was honking as if the fire department and crash were blocking the road for fun or would work faster for our convenience🙄. “
“Once the crash was moved off the side and everyone was deemed fine, they started letting cars through slowly, and as you can hear, the fire department honked back when it was our turn. BMW driver took off speeding past me. I also didn’t include it, but you can guess who was at the same red light as me after.”
We see an Oxon Hill volunteer fire department slowly walk toward his fire engine. He gets into the passenger seat and, as the BMW drives by, blasts the BMW driver and OP (as collateral damage) with the fire engine’s air horn.
“I love that they did it, just wish that my eardrums didn’t have to be collateral damage😭,” /u/miserymistress replied to a comment about the firefighter’s actions.
While the firefighter’s retaliatory actions might be frowned upon, almost everyone in the comments of OP’s Reddit thread was glad he did what he did.
“Firetruck was tired of their s*** too!,” /u/Despoena replied.
“I’m glad the truck honked at them. Would have been funny if they moved up to block them,” /u/PicklesAndCoorslight commented.
“Fire truck: Mine’s louder!😂,” /u/racerpoet humorously added.
No one was defending the BMW driver’s actions.
“I f***in’ hate that guy!!! This sub isn’t good for my blood pressure 😡 what a total a**hole!,” /u/Janny2Sick commented.
“Why are BMW drivers like this, honestly? I imagine most of them are well aware of the memes that go along with BMW drivers, but I swear to Christ they all feed into it. I see it in my own drives even,” /u/Phantasmio added.
Using a car horn the way that BMW driver did is arguably a violation of Section 22 401 B of the Maryland Transporation Code which states that it’s a violation for a…
“Driver to use a motor vehicle horn on a highway. when (it’s) not reasonably necessary for safety”
Honking will never make anyone work faster.
Firefighters are professionals and must take care to address the task at hand methodically, in this case first making sure everyone in the crash is safe, securing the area, documenting the accident, and controlling the flow of traffic afterward.
Honking arguably made that BMW driver’s wait time even longer.
