Dash camera saves the day (wreck captured)

[erkme73]

This evening I had a fender bender. As we enter the intersection, I try to stay in my lane, as the guy to my left wants into my lane. I see it happening and honk to remind him to stay in his lane. I drift as far right as I can - I didn't know if someone was in the right lane at that moment. The guy jerked his wheel back to the left, so I figured he's heading back to where he belongs. So, I re-centered in my lane - and boom.

I admit it... I could/should have just moved into the right lane. But not having taken note of anyone there, and the darkness of the intersection, I didn't want to take a chance of side-swiping someone in the right lane, while this guy keeps on trucking leaving me with the fault.

The damage to my truck was - get this - a tire pressure sensor that was on the valve stem of my rear driver-side tire was snapped off (along with the valve stem) causing a rapid loss in pressure. That was it. No scrapes to the rim, or any other part of the tire/truck. Zero.

The guy's van, on the other hand, had the whole front bumper dragging... I almost felt bad for him. Until I talked to him. He said his left lane comes out of the intersection in the middle lane. He insisted I ran into him. So we wait for cops.

When the FHP arrived, I explained to the Sgt what happened - in front of the other driver. The Sgt said that no matter what, a driver cannot change lanes if the other lane is occupied. Then he talked to us separately. After the Sgt finished with the other driver's interview, he came back to me and said that the guy in the van was trying to blame me for leaving my lane and then coming back in to ram him.

It was at that point that I pulled the video out (I had already copied it to my phone). He watched it and said, "Oh thank you! That's a slam dunk". He said he thought I did everything to avoid impact by getting as far to the right as possible - no knowing if that lane was occupied. He said he wasn't going to issue a ticket to the guy, but after he tried to spin it to be my fault, he was going to cite him.

Was it worth it? No. I was driving my wife to work. She had to call an Uber to complete the trip (and was 20 min late). I had two screaming kids with me. The Sgt actually asked me if I felt the ramming was intentional. I said, "with two toddlers? You think I would do that on purpose?" To which he said, "No, the other guy - do you think he rammed you on purpose?" I said no.

 

[randy]

Wow a late wife, two screaming kids, and someone kind enough to hit you and give you the blame. Hope your night went better
Another example of why I will never drive again without a dash cam, and I keep an OTG reader so I can do like you did.
Good video

 

[erkme73]

Yeah, I didn't really look at it that way, but heck of a way to start the new year... Guess it can only get better Those OTG adapters are a god-send. I must have 20 of them scattered around every glove box, cup holder, diaper drawer... Unfortunately, mine are all vibrant colors - hot pink, lime green, etc. That makes them irresistible to the kiddos. I've probably tossed more than half of them after they've been used as teething toys.

 

[flank]

Why did you gun the engine so much off the line and making your tires sequel? I'm wearing headphones and have the same truck so don't even deny it

 

[kamkar]

Busted

Some times my 1000 ccm Suzuki spin the tires on launch, but the road have to be wet, and its not like i am flooring it, must be greasy roads.

 

[erkme73]

Why did you gun the engine so much off the line and making your tires sequel? I'm wearing headphones and have the same truck so don't even deny it

381 ponies ask to be driven hard. If you have the same truck you know...

Actually, I trimmed the video a bit too much, else you wave heard my boy 3yo talking about the red light. He's just recently discovered red is stop, green is go. I launched before he had a chance to say go... And my 2yo daughter, who was upset about dropping her bottle, usually gets distracted by fast launches and hard turns.

 

[Gibson99]

Yeah my kids (4 and 7) definitely like that stuff, even in my wife's nearly silent Highlander hybrid... 4wd and electric assist means solid, powerful launches if you want them. Granted, they liked them a lot more in my previous vehicle, a Tacoma X-Runner (6 speed manual), where running the gears (and maybe"allowing" the rear tires to lose traction in a turn) was more exciting for them.

 

[Yooshaw]

Great example to show you need a way to quickly show LEOs your footage on the scene. Glad you had your dashcam!