My car is fitted with dash cams front and back - what happens the first time I get a lift...

[reverend]

We were on the motorway visiting a client site today and I got a lift from a colleague - we were driving along minding our own business and suddenly heard screeching tyres - I look to my left and a car is literally facing me sideways being pushed along by a lorry at 60mph.

No idea what happened or whose fault it was - but this was literally the first time I've been in a car without cameras for weeks and this goes and happens.

If we'd have been in my car we'd have had proof of what happened for them, as things stand no-one knows who was actually at fault as the first thing any witnesses knew was that a car was at a 90 degree angle being pushed along by a lorry.

Scary sight for sure and not something I want to see anytime soon - just hope they're all ok now!

 

[russ331]

Not the first time this has happened...

 

[reverend]

It sounded exactly like this one:

Crazy stuff indeed and if we'd have been in my car that's pretty much exactly what my camera would have seen.

 

[Number400]

I refuse to let anyone else drive to lunch at work and I won't even drive my wife's sweet Audi when offered because she only has a front camera and my VW has front and rear.

I am getting a little paranoid with this whole camera thing but justifiably so when I hear things like what happened to you!

 

[extraoneya]

We were on the motorway visiting a client site today and I got a lift from a colleague - we were driving along minding our own business and suddenly heard screeching tyres - I look to my left and a car is literally facing me sideways being pushed along by a lorry at 60mph.
No idea what happened or whose fault it was - but this was literally the first time I've been in a car without cameras for weeks and this goes and happens.
If we'd have been in my car we'd have had proof of what happened for them, as things stand no-one knows who was actually at fault as the first thing any witnesses knew was that a car was at a 90 degree angle being pushed along by a lorry.
Scary sight for sure and not something I want to see anytime soon - just hope they're all ok now!

I wouldn't be surprised if in 10-20 yrs. it will be considered normal for folks to walk around w/ very tiny videos cams attached to their clothes (or even their body?) at all times.

Man...if I had them during my single years, I'd be watching the reruns, instead of being here!?@?#?

 

[kamkar]

hehe it wont be big brother watching, it will be 8 billion big brothers watching in the future.

I can undestand russian truckers not giving a damm and push a car along, otherwise i dont get it, its not like you cant hear the car there, not to mention see it as it is only 2 M from your eyeballs.

That Aussie trucker was mean taking that nice big Mercedes out

 

[extraoneya]

hehe it wont be big brother watching, it will be 8 billion big brothers watching in the future.,,,,,,snip,,,,,,,

Don't we have that already?....look at all those reality shows. I haven't seen them (don't watch TV), but have read bout them.....everyone wants to see everyone else or they want to see themselves on video....it must be human nature..that's what started the whole snapshot camera industry.

In my youth, it was photos...now it's videos.....after my last relative (mother) died a few years ago & I was getting a divorce...I threw boxes of family & my life's photo albums out (including Super 8)....my thinking at the time was..."Who gives a s___ now?"...."What was the purpose of all this crap?"....even I didn't want to go through them again. They filled a large part of a commercial dumpster

Bottom line I think, it's the taking of those photos & videos that gives humans a connection to their lives, not the end result.

 

[kamkar]

We dokument therefor we are
But these days we generate femtobytes of garbage footage every day.

 

[singlespeed]

It sounded exactly like this one:

Crazy stuff indeed and if we'd have been in my car that's pretty much exactly what my camera would have seen.

Wow! I just drove through at tunnel! When did that happen? I never saw that on the news. Classic example of how video helps, the truck driver could have denied fault.

 

[sludgeguts]

i dont get it, its not like you cant hear the car there, not to mention see it as it is only 2 M from your eyeballs.

The blind spot in front of a large lorry like that is actually just over the width of a car. The car would disappear from view when approx 1/4 it's length is alongside - the reason why more and more trucks have large wing mirrors mounted over the screen - to view the road immediately in front, and wing mirrors mounted above the passenger door - to view the road alongside.
The truck in the melbourne tunnel clip has neither of these mirrors.
Also, if you watch the video, the truck overtakes a car, the driver most likely checks to see he's clear of the car & begins to move over, at the same time, another car moves into the middle lane from the far left lane - directly into the truck's blind spot.

and

 

[Street Guardian USA]

Some people don't realize that the biggest threat is often times behind you. Dual Channel is the way to go into the future for sure.

 

[DJR96]

That incident in the Melbourne tunnel is interesting.

The first problem is that the vehicle ahead of the vehicle with the dashcams in it was in the wrong lane. "Keep left unless overtaking" is an enforceable road rule. Because of this, both the dashcam car and the truck following move to the centre lane to overtake the slower moving vehicle in the right lane. The truck even indicates this lane change, albeit without much time before moving.
Unfortunately at the same time the Mercedes driver who was in the left lane catches up to the smaller truck and decides to move to the middle lane to overtake it, normally nothing wrong with that. Only, the Mercedes driver doesn't appear to indicate at all and certainly hasn't taken any notice of the other traffic around it, especially the truck two lanes over.
Then it all turns to crap as they both converge on the middle lane.

Now I remember everyone including the media jumping up and down about the truck drivers behaviour here, and why he didn't stop sooner and blaming him for everything. But quite frankly the outcome was never going to be any better than what we see in the video. The truck driver HAS actually minimised the carnage and done the best thing he possibly could have done.

Had the truck jabbed the brakes to allow the Mercedes to get in front, I think the probability of the Mercedes driver completely losing control trying to straighten up is very high. From the moment it was tagged by the truck it was going to lose control. And most likely been smashed into by the truck anyway, or possibly even crashing into other vehicles as well.

So having been turned 90 degrees (quite gracefully really) and being pushed by the truck, the Mercedes occupants were actually in the SAFEST place to be.
From there there was no point in the truck driver slamming on the brakes. That would only cause a massive pile up of traffic behind him. Potentially dozens of vehicles damaged and the risk to all their occupants. And block the tunnel for many many hours.
So continuing on and pushing the Mercedes out of the tunnel on to a wider section of road with an emergency lane was actually a very wise decision.

So who's at fault?
The first vehicle for not keeping left unless overtaking. And the Mercedes driver for not indicating and for careless driving.
The truck driver you could argue was tailgating. Strictly speaking he was but given the traffic density it wasn't unusual. He may have also just temporarily closed the gap briefly while slowing for the vehicles in front of him, we don't see that from the given video footage though. But importantly, it wasn't the cause of the incident. Also note that the truck driver has anticipated an overtaking manoeuvre before the car with the dashcams. This reinforces the fact just how much slower the vehicle in the right lane ahead of the dashcam car was travelling.
But otherwise he should be hailed a hero for greatly minimising what could have been a much worse incident.

The other note-worthy point about this, is that Australian road rule enforcement has concentrated on anti-speeding for a long time now. It's the easiest to implement and automate and raises massive amounts of revenue. Some tunnels including this one have fixed speed cameras in them. Trouble is they don't enforce all the other road rules that ACTUALLY matter. Speed wasn't the issue in this case.

 

[DJR96]

As for the other occasions including the OP's example, I'm sure you would find in most cases the car driver has cut off the truck driver. Which is a regular severe annoyance for a truck driver. Let the car occupants panic for awhile, let them realise what they just did wasn't smart. And might as well push them to somewhere safe and not going to disrupt other traffic.