An impatient Carlsbad driver decided he’d waited long enough and casually ran a red, only to emergency brake to avoid t-boning cars with the right-of-way.
San Diego County-area driver and Redditor /u/RandomDreamin shared headshaking, late-night dashcam footage from this particular Carlsbad intersection from earlier in April (Apr 14, 2026) to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing an impatient driver in their Toyota Camry deciding waiting was not for them by creeping through a red light, only to emergency brake to avoid a t-bone accident.
Or, were they confused by the green arrow? You decide.
Check out their hare-brained move below with the original Reddit thread linked here.
The incident happened at the intersectino of Palomar Airport Rd. and Paseo Del Norte (exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As the dashcam shows, OP is headed westbound down Palomar Airport Rd and is stopped at a light waiting for his turn to go green.
Next to him, a driver in a beige Toyota Camry (9UVK882), after several seconds of waiting, suddenly decides they’ve waited long enough and slowly rolls across the pedestrian path and limit line to run a red.
Of course, traffic on Paseo Del Norte suddenly gets the green to go at that moment, forcing the driver in the Camry to slam on his brakes to avoid t-boning them, before slipping into the far right lane and continuing on their way.
“I think they were expecting it to turn green and saw the green arrow and went,” OP replied to a comment asking why they’d go against a red, at all.
“Looks like he went when the green right arrow went. But he’s not in that lane, he’s drugged out or something,” /u/AdvancedTrek replied to OP, offering a potentially plausible, unfortunate reason behind their red-light run.
“This is why you still look both ways when you have a green light, because of crazy people like that,” one of the top comments from /u/Harouki suggested.
In San Diego, running a red light typically costs around $490–$550 after fees.
It also adds 1 point to your driving record with the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
That point can spike your insurance for 3 years, often costing far more than the ticket itself.
