According to the dashcam owner, water had been pooling in this particular slow lane for months, and the inevitable happened.
SoCal commuter and Redditor /u/lvi56 shared surprising (but not unexpected) dashcam footage from the I-10 freeway in and around La Verne/Pomona showing a driver in a lifted truck with all-terrain tires hit a particular wet area of the freeway, pooling with rain water going on for months, and slide out of control, hitting the side of a semi before coming to a stop.
Check out the dashcam video embedded below with the original Reddit thread linked here.
As mentioned, the incident occurred on I-10/San Bernardino Freeway just before the off-ramp to the 57 (Exact location on Google Maps linked here).
As the dashcam shows, OP is one lane to the left of the slow lane.
A driver in what looks like a lifted white Toyota Tacoma can be seen in a lane to the left of OP, making several, simultaneous lane changes towards the 57 interchange.
That Tacoma was in the wrong place at the wrong time, as, according to OP,
“Water has been pooling in that lane for months, and I always drive by thinking one day someone is gonna hit it just right (or just wrong) and go for a spin. Today was that day, and of course, it was a lifted pickup making a last-second three-lane dash for their exit.”
As predicted, the lifted Tacoma hits the wet patch of the freeway and loses control.
It’s not common knowledge, but despite contrary belief, larger, all-terrain tires perform worse compared to their smaller, stock counterparts on regular city roads and freeways.
The notchy nature of the tread blocks performs well off-road, but on regular roads, they provide less traction and grip, even more so when someone, like this Tacoma driver, hits a wet patch of road.
The Tacoma ricochets off the side of the semi-trailer, likely causing thousands in damage but not even damaging the semi-trailer itself.
With nowhere safely to pull over, the semi driver continues, and it’s not entirely sure if they ever pulled over.
With little to no damage to the semi-trailer, why would they?
“Classic Mall-Crawler,” the top comment from /u/WangDanglin reads.
“Semi driver probably felt nothing,” BrownTiger3 added.
I don’t understand. It was lifted, so certainly it has better traction, towing capacity, torque and hp right??,” /u/penguingod26 sarcastically added if it wasn’t painfully obvious.
“I can’t understand why moving the center of gravity a foot higher than the engineered specs would make it more unstable.”
If you lose control on I‑10 in SoCal and slam into a semi and are found at fault, you could (operative word, could) be hit with a reckless‑driving charge — and that means up to 90 days in jail, a fine up to $1,000, and 2 points on your license under California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) rules. (Ticket Crushers Law)
If the crash caused property damage or injury, the fines and consequences can be more severe (and insurance + legal fallout would likely follow). (kannlawoffice.com)
