Distracted driving is dangerous. I’m confident this isn’t the first time I’ve written that sentence either. And, in reality, we don’t know why the driver in the video above veered out of his lane and into oncoming traffic. He may have worked an early shift and dozed off. And if that’s the case, he certainly got a rude awakening. But in our ever-connected world where our phones are constantly trying to distract us from the world around us, it’s hard not to assume the driver was texting or posting to Twitter.
The dashcam video from the car behind the Volvo – which appears to be a late model Volvo XC70 – shows the car slowly drift out of the proper lane and collide head first into a pickup truck. Or lorry as they call it across the pond. The Volvo springs back and comes to rest sideways on the road. The vehicle with the dashcam has to come to a panicked stop, slightly bumping the wrecked Volvo before backing up away from the wreckage.
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While the Volvo driver’s face is blurred, you can see he’s moving around after the accident, and by how forceful he threw out some debris that entered the cabin, he doesn’t appear happy about the situation. According to the video’s description on Reddit, the driver walked away uninjured, which is a miracle.
It was only a few years ago in 2012, at least in the U.S., when the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration implemented the small-overlap crash test. This was designed to mimic a crash just like the one this Volvo was involved in – a moderate-speed crash that only clips a quarter of the front bumper. These are especially dangerous because there is little protection on the outboards of a vehicle. Since the implementation of the test, automakers have quickly fortified their front crash structures to protect drivers.
But this Volvo isn’t new. It’s at least five or more years old, and the crash shows how robust the crash structure already was. It does appear the door can’t open, which is a problem for today’s modern cars, but otherwise, the Volvo help up remarkably well for hitting a truck at about 37 miles per hour (60 kilometers per hour).
This would be a Volvo you show your friend looking for a new or used car. Volvo built a reputation on safety, and even its older cars still astound in that department. This could have been much worse for the driver.
Source: Reddit
