Jeez, how terrible for the bystanders; not knowing that the blazing car was empty.
Meanwhile, in the outback…
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trucker was 100% looking at his phone; he didn’t even brake.
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Yeah, hence the stalwart bystander near the end sprinting towards the raging fireball. I imagine they assume there’s someone inside that needs saving. The fact that there’s nobody there doesn’t make this person any less a hero.
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I learnt a new acronym. Nothing else good seems to have come from this.
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This is obviously footage from the highways department, it says so in the corner. Why would the driver be a mile down the highway with a PTZ camera?
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not slowing down is one thing, i bet slowing down a big truck takes some time…but not even a swerve?
lots of free space in the lane to the truck’s left.
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For those of us not raised on a cellphone:
“Sorry Mate, I Didn’t See You”
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sleepy times on that certain route-tines…
Yah, no, I’m normally quick to defend truck drivers in accident situations, but I cannot explain this at all. Clear day, dry straight road, empty highway, perfect visibility. No attempt to avoid. No wheel lockup at all is apparent until after the accident. Honestly, I suspect the driver was asleep. I can’t see any other explanation for this.
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Are big trucks better at not drifting than passenger cars? If I left my hands off the wheel for about a second I’d be drifting out of my lane. I can’t think of a circumstance in a passenger vehicle where I’d be able to drive as dead straight as this truck does without intent. That’s why things like “using phone” and “watching a movie” and “asleep at wheel” seem unlikely to me.
But IDK, big rigs might be truer in their steering than cars due to more axles or more inertia or something – though I also assume that they get some torque steer from having a giant diesel engine running.
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Yah, they do have a lot more inertia and tendency to track straight as a result. Cars do too, though. Car suspensions have a few degrees of “caster” designed into them. This is what makes the steering straighten itself out when you let go of the wheel after a corner, and it makes cars tend to track straight. It’s also down to the road quality. In my misspent youth (and I am not proud of this) I have fallen asleep at the wheel of my car and woken up a couple of miles later. It was a deserted highway and the road was good, so the car tracked fine. On some beat up freeways, the car wouldn’t track itself for more than a few yards. It depends.
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Even if the big rig driver was paying some attention, the visual cues are weak. In a snapshot, the pickup looks like normal traffic ahead: It is pointed the right way, there are no brake lights, no raised hood, other traffic isn’t reacting wildly. I’m not defending anyone - just pointing out the tableau.
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Yes - especially if they are Volvos.
(No apologies for posting this for the second time in a week or so - now looking for a third chance!) 
But, then again, even a hamster could have steered round that pickup.
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I guess the truck licence plate got 3d printed on the pick up rear.
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That’s a atrocious spot to park the pickup.
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Now I’m remembering one night out in rural Kansas, when I was riding with friends in a car in the wee hours of the morning (yes, we had been partying) and woke up in a ditch on the opposite side of the road. Good times.
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Yah for sure. I’ve seen stopped cars like that on the freeway and it really catches you off guard. Takes your brain a moment to process “that car in the middle lane with no flashing lights isn’t moving. It may be that the trucker was distracted on his phone and didn’t look up in time for his brain to finish that processing.
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And there had to be something hazardous in the bed of the truck that was parked, like guzzline in non-approved containers or something.
There’s something not quite right about why the truck was stopped in the middle of the road.
Maybe a case of “premature rapture?”
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It did, and had an open lane to move into. The pickup had its flashers on, as well. The semi driver was barely in their lane, which ain’t right, either, so, at this point, I blame the semi driver.
Why the pickup driver didn’t pull off the road is a mystery, since traffic doesn’t seem heavy enough to prevent it, but who knows how long it had been sitting there.
So, the pickup shouldn’t have been there, but the semi shouldn’t have hit it, either.
I was a CDL driver in a former life…
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