Drivers at this particular merge point were given ample room to merge lanes; however, this Volkswagen driver refused to do so safely.
Hartford County area driver and Redditor /u/G1nko shared headshaking dashcam footage from earlier in May (May 19, 2026) to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing a driver on CT-17 failing to yield the right of way at a point where two lanes merged into one despite being in the lane that was ending.
Check out the near-collision dash cam footage below with the original Reddit thread linked here.
The incident happened on the Glastonbury Expressway just after the Hebron Ave overpass and before the split between the New London Turnpike and 17 South towards Portland/ So. Glastonbury (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)
As the dashcam shows, OP is on a section of the G.E. where construction has closed off one lane.
As such, CTDOT’s placed orange traffic barrels to direct traffic to merge.
In a merge situation where two lanes merge to one, drivers in the lane that ends must merge safely with drivers in that lane not ending.
A driver can be seen in a blue Volkswagen Atlas in the leftmost lane who, at first, is behind OP and, upon reaching the point where drivers must merge with the left lane merging with the right, refuses to yield.
They slot next to OP, brute forcing OP to concede his right-of-way by driving into the emergency shoulder to avoid a side-swipe collision.
The Atlas driver gets their way, getting in front of OP, before going right towards Portland/ So. Glastonbury.
“That s*** pisses me off to no end. They were already behind you, but just had to go up one car length for no reason. Literally not a soul behind you, and they were already behind you,” the top comment from /u/Old_Goat_Ninja reads.
“I hate these people who just refuse to slow down to merge and just decide the best course of action is to speed up and risk crashing. Impatient idiots,” /u/therealNerdMuffin added.
“If you’re not willing to accept the damage, then don’t play chicken. They called your bluff. Technically, both of you are idiots,” /u/FutureMess pointed out.
In Connecticut, refusing to yield during a lane merge can result in a moving violation such as improper lane usage or failure to grant right-of-way, typically carrying fines around $90–$150 depending on the exact citation and fees. Connecticut also uses a DMV point system, and similar moving violations commonly add 1 point to a driver’s record. (drivinglaws.org)
