Wild Video Of A Car Being Pushed Sideways Down The Road Shows Why It’s A Good Idea To Leave Space Around Heavy Trucks

While most fears around driving near heavy trucks stem from chances of dying on impact, there is another lower-speed sort of commercial vehicle collision worth worrying about, because it seems incredibly chaotic. As this footage illustrates, just because you can see a dump truck doesn’t necessarily mean the driver of said dump truck can see you.

Toronto news channel CP24 was reporting on possible bike lanes for Avenue Road when its cameras captured footage of an eleventh-generation Toyota Corolla being pushed sideways by a dump truck. As per the news outlet:

In the video, the truck is seen pushing the car to the side, prompting the driver to climb out of her vehicle on the passenger side and run to the sidewalk, where she appears to raise her hand to alert the truck driver.

Although we don’t know what caused this collision, damage to the driver’s side of the rear bumper on the Corolla conjures up several theories. Whatever happened, it was relatively quick thinking of the Corolla driver to get out on the passenger side and wave the truck driver down, a feat only possible due to relatively slow speeds. The speed limit on that stretch of road stands at 40 km/h (25 mph), and during the day, sometimes traffic moves even slower than that.

While it’s shocking to see a car being pushed sideways by a heavy vehicle, it’s also more common than you’d think. Commercial trucks have huge forward blind spots, to the point where a smaller car can be completely hidden from view directly in front of a truck. While it’s possible the truck driver in this incident felt something, there’s a chance they saw nothing, especially with the Corolla being perpendicular to the truck.

If you drive a smaller vehicle, exercise caution around heavy trucks. Just because you can see them doesn’t mean they can see you. Give them plenty of space, be actively aware of their visibility limitations, and always have an escape route should anything go horribly wrong. Even if you’re a responsible driver with no history of collisions, you still have to worry about everyone else on the road.

(Photo credits: CP24)

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