Driving a car involves making a huge number of decisions, and unfortunately, not everyone has the capacity to make the right ones, as is the case here with the driver in this Chevy Traverse.
This particular video comes to us from social news website reddit, and is a bit longer than the standard crash video, clocking in at just under 5 minutes. However, during that time, we get to witness the full breadth of poor decision-making on the part of the driver behind the wheel of this Chevy Traverse.
The video opens on a sleepy two-lane road, where the Chevy Traverse is tooling along at a reasonable speed. Suddenly, the crossover throws on the hazard lights, then stops in the middle of the lane. The driver in the car behind the Traverse is perplexed, asking “what are you doing?” out loud.
Suddenly, the Chevy Traverse driver starts to reverse, all while the following car lays into the horn. It looks as though the Chevy is attempting to back up into a nearby driver, across a double yellow line and traffic, with additional traffic behind him.
Clearly, a poor decision on the part of the Chevy Traverse. After some traffic passes in the other lane, the Traverse continues to back up – right into the car with the camera. The collision impacts the right-front of the Traverse, slamming against the front end of the following car, knocking off the crossover’s fender liner and crunching the front bumper.
“Really?!” asks the flabbergasted second driver. A line of traffic starts to form in the other lane.
The rest of the video shows the Traverse finally making it up the driveway, with the following driver getting out to exchange information. Both drivers are unhurt, although there’s clearly some ego bruising on the part of the Chevy Traverse driver.
Check out the full thing by hitting play below. Be warned, there is some strong language.
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Comments
This is a common thing on suburban roads. Most never even use 4 ways.
It is clear the Traverse was in the wrong but you learn never pull up on a vehicle like this as it may be up to you to prevent the accident.
I had a mini van not long ago put the 4 ways on and then pulled over. To I waited then pulled to go around and he then made a hard left IN front of me. You have to be defensive. I was glad I did not gun it and was going slow enough to avoid him.
C8.R: The problem isn’t that the second car pulled up behind the Traverse, it’s that the Traverse made an illegal stop in the middle of a highway with traffic flowing. The lady who was hit did absolutely nothing wrong. Flashers or no flashers. You can’t just stop on a highway like that.
Wrong. This high school driving: would you agree that if he had driven front-in, it would have been totally legal to stop there until oncoming traffic clears? Well, check the laws, there’s no distinction about driving front-in or back-in to a driveway.
Since I think you’re in CA, CVC 21801:
(a) The driver of a vehicle intending to turn to the left or to complete a U-turn upon a highway, or to turn left into public or private property, or an alley, shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles approaching from the opposite direction which are close enough to constitute a hazard at any time during the turning movement, and shall continue to yield the right-of-way to the approaching vehicles until the left turn or U-turn can be made with reasonable safety.
(b) A driver having yielded as prescribed in subdivision (a), and having given a signal when and as required by this code, may turn left or complete a U-turn, and the drivers of vehicles approaching the intersection or the entrance to the property or alley from the opposite direction shall yield the right-of-way to the turning vehicle.
@Sam: Nothing that you state makes a shred of sense. Thank you for supplying the vehicle code for all to read. Where in those two sections did you see that it is ok to do what that Traverse driver did? You can’t show us because it’s not there. You seem to be either confusing the terms or just making up your own based on what the code DOES NOT SAY.
Do you know the difference between “turn to the left” vs. “to complete a U-turn” vs. backing? Now, had the Traverse driver come to a controlled stop with his left turn signal on, waited for the oncoming traffic to pass and then safely turned into the drive, then this would not have happened. We know that because the lady behind him did come to a stop and had zero idea why he stopped with his flashers on. Had he done what I said above and she hit him in the rear while he was legally waiting to turn left, then she would have been in the wrong. So please help me understand how you came to your conclusion, especially after reading the CVC.
Really? So if the Traverse had stalled would the person in the second car pull tight behind the Traverse and sit there until the tow truck arrived? This is why you stay at least a car length behind the vehicle in front of you when stopped.
Larry, two very different things. Don’t attempt to merge the two into one. Look at it this way. How many times have you been following a larger vehicle in front of you and that vehicle responds to something in the road in front of them while placing the flashers on? It happens often. The lady following wasn’t (according to the video) following too closely and she came to a safe stop. I’m sure she could have been a few feet farther back, but watch the video again. The Traverse driver BACKS UP some and then begins to turn.
Clearly he was at fault. Video speaks for itself.
Where is there a law that says you can not stop on a secondary road? What if there was an obstruction?
There are also factors not covered by law. You have to be defensive and consider what others are thinking your may think you are doing. It is not always clear legal or not.
Technically the Traverse has the right away and traffic behind it needs to yield. Now if he was pulling from the driveway then that would be a different story. He still used poor judgment.
Now if this was an interstate or larger higher speed highway then you would have a case for not stopping.
C8.R: That is wrong. Why are several of you making excuses for this guy? The huge difference in what you are referring to and what he did is that he started backing up on a highway with traffic around him. Very different from stopping for an obstruction in the roadway. And the correct thing for him to do would have been to safely come to a stop with his left turn signal on, waited for oncoming traffic to pass and then safely make his turn into the drive. That’s not close to what he did.
I’m beginning to think you and a few others on here are just saying this because maybe you don’t like the looks of the lady that was hit or just the fact that it was a woman?
You’re absolutely right about being defensive. You have to be ready for anything with the way people drive nowadays.
The smart thing to do with driveways off a busy street is to put a loop, or at least a turnaround pad, so you always drive forward into traffic.
This is one of those things that it would never even occur to me to attempt.
This video isn’t changing my mind on that.
This is actually the safer way because you are backing out of traffic and the driver sees oncoming traffic out the front (which apparently he was fixated on). If he drove front in, he’d have to back into traffic. UPS requires their drivers back into driveways, and requires them to back into parking spots too.
I wouldn’t do it anyway. This is not a UPS truck with a backup noise maker, and that isn’t a one car wide driveway. This is a guy doing something unexpected, and that causes accidents.
If you can’t turn around in the driveway, you can wait for a clearing at least or back onto the shoulder first.
Most people here that do it a better way is they pull over if they can. Let traffic clear. Then pull out and back in with no traffic being in the way.
Or pull in the drive and turn in the yard if needed.
The issue is that he didn’t have the room to make the maneuver so while its great that he didn’t hit oncoming traffic, the correct and safer way to perform this move would be drive to a clear area where he can make a u-turn then circle back and park in his driveway. Same result, but that would have required him to think about someone other than himself. Instant karma IMO and the fact that he tried to blame the poor woman behind him just boils my blood. If it was a big guy in a pickup truck he’d never open his mouth except to apologize.
Backing in is not a bad idea, but backing across on-coming lane adds another layer. Company I worked for always preached,’Back in on arrival’, but that was in a parking lot. Traverse driver had no clue there was a car behind him.
If the traverse driver had no clue that there was no one behind him, then either he has no rear view mirrors, and/or failed to use them.
That, and the use of four ways instead of the left turn signal put him in the wrong.
ALSO, she pulled up close (not knowing what the driver intended to do), made her a contributing factor to the accident.
Thus, she had the last possible chance to avoid the accident.
Both parties are guilty, let their insurance companies fight it out.
Reference to the above comments: Nate, I agree totally with you. Sam and C8.R: Where are you coming up with this stuff? That is never how this should have been done and he (Traverse driver) did it totally wrong. Just because UPS or Amazon or FedEx drivers do something certainly doesn’t make it correct!
Anyhow, I just love how indignant the Travers driver acts. What a stupid moron.
Law says don’t back into traffic the SUV did the right thing backing into a driveway. The lady was to close and clearly made it clear she should be driving. Like really yelling and honking at someone trying to back up. As for the hazard lights the SUV should have just used a signal.
The car may have been too close, but nobody expects someone to stop and back up in the middle of a street. Just a turn signal would probably have made that intention even less clear.
But that isn’t the point. The Traverse backed up and turned, hitting a car that wasn’t even moving. What’s worse is that the Traverse hit her with their own front fender because they weren’t even looking that way or just have a terrible sense of distance.
No amount of excuses can cover for someone who ran into a stationary object with their car.
Hahaha.
“Law says don’t back into traffic the SUV did the right thing backing into a driveway.”
That is an exact quote from Cliff above!! Yet this Traverse drive did exactly that: back into traffic. Not only did he back into traffic, he actually backed into a car!
So much for backup cameras. Amazing stuff. Good thing they had a dash cam, cause nobody would believe this story. Geez.
Bad city planning. Backing up into the driveway was not ideal but the smartest option. Imagine having to back out of that driveway into that busy street. By the looks of it his vision is obstructed by the grading on the one side and neighbors hedges on the other side. He would not see the traffic until 75% of his car was sticking out into the street. The other driver could have given him more space to maneuver. unfortunate situation for both.
It was a accident going into the driveway not backing out of the driveway so why even bring it up. Its like saying he was late for work and had to exit his driveway, who cares. The guy clearly was at fault, and the lady did nothing wrong. Its looks good on him trying to blame the person he just backed into. Backup camera, backup mirror, honking horn what else could have helped this moron. Looks like his insurance rates will be going up. Haha
Clearly the backing driver is legally at fault. He should have looked behind before backing. There are many options he could have taken to get safely into his driveway. Clearly the following driver does not have any common sense. Anyone with common sense would not have pulled so close to a vehicle with 4-way flashers on and stopping. Sometimes it takes 2 people to have an accident.
This is about one of the most stupid maneuvers I have ever seen.
All things aside. It is evident that the Chevrolet Traverse did not have Chevy safety features..