So many crashes happen because one driver thinks because they have a right of way they can just carry on. But, in this instance, captured on dashcam video, it wasn’t without consequences.
In the 24-second video, a trucker travelling on a 2-way road, can be seen doing 78km/h from the onboard camera. Another truck emerges overtaking him. It’s not known whether the overtaking truck initiated the manouvre illegally or the one being overtaken made it difficult for him to pass but there is a continuous white line which obviously makes it illegal for him to be found there.
As the other truck struggles to overtake, this trucker does decrease his speed to make it easy for him causing them to go head to head for about 13 seconds.
All this time, the overtaking truck is indicating to come back onto the right lane but he is not given the way.
As the road starts curving to the left, lights of another car emerge from ahead causing the overtaking trucker to cut back onto the correct lane forcing the recording truck to drastically reduce speed and leave the road.
Initially, it looks like the recording truck stopped safely but in less than a second, it flips on its side. The overtaking truck does not stop and continues on its way.
Revisiting the video, one can learn that if the recording truck lifted his foot from the accelerator, the mishap would have been avoided.
Don’t get me wrong, the overtaking truck was wrong to overtake on a bend but the crash was caused by the failure by the recording truck driver to let the overtaking offender pass.
As Freethinker Jo said in his article, that defensive driving is the most important skill a truck driver should possess to remain safe and share the road with others safely. What’s your take?
Zero defensive driving skills can cost you life https://t.co/XCHEsbxOaJ pic.twitter.com/o3ZKGaca3M
— SA Trucker (@rsa_trucker) June 28, 2022
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