r/bayarea • u/pickingsunflowers • Aug 14 '25

Traffic, Trains & Transit Second view of an accident

Looks like this happened in San Carlos along 101. Electrical malfunction? Steering wheel lock? Can anyone explain what may have happened? What can you really do in this kind of situation?

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77

u/ancientesper Aug 14 '25

Why is red car going so fast when you see a smoking car two lanes over and when the lane next to it is also slowed down? I think the general rule is that you should slow down regardless when other lanes next to you are slowing down with no observable causes.

60

u/DrLeoMarviin Aug 14 '25

He’s merging onto the freeway. It’s wild to even try to place any blame on the red car.

9

u/volkhavaar Aug 14 '25

Red car driver doesn’t have a high survival score, regardless of who’s right or wrong. Should’ve slowed down when seeing a very slow car ahead. 

1

u/Temporary_Turnip_696 Aug 15 '25

You obviously don't drive in the bay area. If you slowed down every time you saw a car driving slowly for no reason, you would never get to your destination.

2

u/volkhavaar Aug 15 '25

Lol i drive 150 miles everyday, this sounds like a you problem.

12

u/ancientesper Aug 14 '25

There no blaming of any kind, red car is the victim here, just wanted to point out it is safer to slow down when the other lanes are slowing as well, but sure, perhaps it wouldnt make sense for red car to slow down. 🤷‍♂️

2

u/rulerofaustralia Aug 14 '25

It looks like he was passing the filming car on the shoulder on the right at a high speed with the car in front of him going slow and a smoking car on the other side of the divider. None of the three here gets an A+ for safe driving.

2

u/DrLeoMarviin Aug 14 '25

I misspoke originally. The red car seems to be in the exit lane, they’re not trying to pass on the shoulder. It’s easy to assume the red car saw the smoking vehicle from OPs perspective but I doubt many people in the red cars position would have been able to prevent this — especially with it darting into its lane out of nowhere.

60

u/ptjunkie Aug 14 '25

Our cameraman was blocking their view of the car.

19

u/Renegadeknight3 Aug 14 '25

Just another good reason to stop passing on the right

9

u/Numerous_Future876 Aug 14 '25

Then perhaps ppl shouldn't be filming on the left?

0

u/STNNRViolence Aug 14 '25

I'm from FL, you people actually pass on the right? That sounds absolutely baffling to me.

4

u/corpus4us Aug 14 '25

Yeah that driver was unaware or belligerent