Who is in the wrong?

The real crime here is the video being recorded in portrait. Can we offer classes on how to record video with your phone?

I saw this earlier today. I think the driver making the rude gestures was in the wrong with respect to his own accident, but I think the woman who made the video was very irresponsible for recording while driving, and is an asshole for laughing at his accident.

TLDR; he caused his own accident, but they’re both jerks.

She should be paying more attention to her own driving. I believe she was instigating his reaction by altering her driving. She should be ticketed if this video was made public, as this is more distracting than texting…

He is at fault for his own driving and reactions, but he also let her get under his skin.

She must be on her way to buy @Coloma’s 10-gallon asshat.

It is not clear what the speed limit was. I am guessing 50mph since she showed her speedometer. Assuming it was 50mph, she was driving just at the speed limit in the left hand lane with no car in front of her – likely for a long time. Clearly it was enough time for the truck to be following behind for a while and for her to finally notice and get her camera out so she could video. She might even have been going slower while playing with her phone and finally sped up to 50 when she started the video.

The law will say the guy is at fault but she was the one who instigated it. If someone is behind you and the road in front of you is empty for miles and there are people following closely behind – you are the problem. There are two lanes. Move over to the right and let others go by.

@LuckyGuy I totally agree that driving the speed limit in the left lane is usually inappropriate, and very likely to irritate other drivers. But the guy following her had a responsibility to himself and the other drivers around him to keep his cool, keep his eyes on the road, and wait for an opportunity to pass, then do so safely. I maintain that she’s a jerk, but so is he for causing his own accident.

The pickup driver is clearly at fault for causing his own accident and had plenty of opportunity to safely pass her earlier and be on his way. But they both deserve one of @Coloma’s 10 gallon asshat’s as even though she was doing the speed limit she was being a jerk for driving in the passing lane and her laughing and filming this event shows she is a pathetic passive aggressive Beey-o-t-c-h.

Apparently this happened in Florida where there is no law against cell phone use while driving. Then again, Florida is not known to care about sanity when they create laws.

In all seriousness – what is there to figure out here? I see someone tailgaiting. Let’s list all of the situations where it’s ok to tailgate:

1.

I can’t seem to come up with any.

Let’s try to figure out who is responsible for the truck driver’s emotions and behavior. It’s either:

1. the truck driver
2. Obama

I’m going with #1.

What am I missing?

I personally think they are both wrong. He is legally wrong but she is morally deficient.
It reminds me of teasing a wounded wild animal. Yes the animal is dangerous, but you don’t have to torment it.

She’s legally wrong in most states. The law is unless you are passing a car you are supposed to be in the right lane. So she’s creating a driving hazard. He just made it worse by his actions. So they’re both wrong.

Well, I read all the answers before I posted! Yeah. What ya’ll said. She was an idiot for riding in the left lane, he was an idiot for tailgating, she was an idiot for video taping it, he was an idiot for flipping her off, he was an idiot for wrecking his truck, she was a quitch for laughing about it. For all she knew he could have been seriously injured.

Intelligent design apologists?

We had an interesting discussion here on this site about people speeding in the left lane and how you really should not be in the left lane doing the speed limit. Some Jellies said that nobody should be exceeding the speed limit no matter what lane they were in. I say move out of the way if you have someone “giving you a subtle hint.” Nothing is more annoying than someone going slow in the left lane, especially if they can’t be passed. It’s really passive aggressive to stay in the left lane if you know someone is behind you and wants to pass.

It’s Florida.

The only “law” against cell phone use is for people under 18, whilst the car is in motion, and it only refers to texting, and the cop isn’t allowed to check your phone for recent texts, so if you say “I was switching my Pandora station”, the ticket gets thrown out.

There’s nothing against recording video.

And the video isn’t necessary to prosecute the guy, because in Florida, any rear end collision is your fault. Unless you don’t have insurance and the guy you hit does, because then the victim’s insurance company will claim that Florida is a no-fault state and he gets saddled with it.

Ah, Florida. How I hate thee.

Arguably, the Florida Legislature made cell phones and computers illegal last year when they outlawed internet gambling cafes.

They did it by accident, but there it is.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/08/florida-banned-computers_n_3561701.html

@Seek Did you watch the video? There was no rear end collision…

I didn’t. My husband was talking about it earlier, I must have misunderstood him.

Single car accident is always the driver’s fault, anyway.

I think the real crime here is that guy’s terrible driving. Losing control to that extent, at a relatively slow speed, just because he took his eyes off the road for a couple of seconds.
Bad driving skills fella.

@ucme It almost appears that he hit the gas instead of the brake. It looks as though he is accelerating through the ditch.

@Cruiser I know, right.
He’s now shamed for life & should retake his driving test, in one of those push along Little Tykes cars :D

And I hope the female is getting hollered at for cruising in the left lane.

Her laughing speaks volumes for her character…nuff said.

Both people are at fault, IMO.

She had a responsibility to call the police emergency number. All she had to do was tell what happened and give the plate number. Filming while driving is inattentive driving.

HOLY CRAP!

I just watched the video. They passed my street. Haha!

And for what it’s worth, that area has a bunch of left-hand turns, so it’s really really common for the left lane to be slower than the right.

Oh, and they were doing 60 in a 45.

Clearly, they were both at fault.

She was speeding in the left lane, and he wanted to be speeding more.

She passed at least one vehicle in the right lane, and could have pulled over at any time after that – and since she didn’t, that’s on her. Since she noticed the guy tailgating her she made sure to stay where she was while filming that – which she should not have done with a handheld device, and provoke him into tailgating her more – which he should not have done.

He finally passed her on the right, which may be a problem in some jurisdictions – I’m not going to blame him for that – but then he had to prolong the incident by slowing down and speeding up again to stay alongside her and shouting and gesturing, instead of just letting the incident end there. That’s on him again.

Then he “had to” speed up again so that he could be sure to pass the vehicle in front of him (because of his antics) and lost control at that point.

There’s no end of fail in this video, on both of them.

If he had just had a few minutes of patience and dropped back to a safe distance and speed, then he could have passed her at leisure (when he did, in fact), and clear her bad driving and leave her behind. And she could have driven properly, not obstructing the left lane “because she was speeding anyway”, and not become some self-appointed guardian of “this much over the speed limit should be enough for anyone”.

Both of them are terrible drivers.

That much over the speed limit in that area, with wet roads, is more than enough for anyone. That’s a railroad track, two school zones, and a very dangerous split in the road, where US 41 becomes Nebraska Ave and Florida Avenue. In fact, it’s kind of hard to tell, but that building he crashed in front of is a church. It’s right after that split. It looks (and again, hard to tell) to me that he decided to go Nebraska instead of Florida at the last minute to stay engaged with her, and that’s when he lost control. It’s a steep curve.

I was reading comments on this video on a news site and someone commented that the lady was turning left, so she was ok to remain in the left lane.

I didn’t read all the comments so I am not sure how that person knew the lady driver was turning left. If she was, though, then she is in the “right” to be in the left, if you know what I mean.

She did take the left fork in the road.

Today, on the morning news, they showed this woman and talked about the outcome. The anchors didn’t really give harsh opinions. The woman who did the video was interviewed. I am not going to make any judgement about her based upon her appearance. She would not give her name because she said she received death threats. They showed what appeared to be a mug shot of the man pickup truck driver. If it wasn’t a mug shot, it was just his head and shoulders and he didn’t look very happy. They said he was charged with reckless driving and the video showed he was not wearing a seat belt so he was charged with that, also. The anchors commented on how she incited him and “everyone should just chill out.” They were fairly objective – it’s easy to see both sides. The woman being tailgated – we’ve all been there. The man who was outraged with whatever he perceived her doing – we’ve all been there, too. They said perhaps he was mad seeing her video him. She really didn’t have to laugh at him at the end – that was somewhat immature.

By the way:

All the times I complain about Florida rednecks and bad driving…

Now you all know I’m not lying.

@jca She’s a woman who drew attention to herself on the internet. Of course she received death threats. Sigh.

@Seek_Kolinahr At one point she turns the camera on her speedometer. She was doing 50.
The video is almost 2 minutes long. I’d say, if she was turning left at any time, she sure started early. She should have just pulled over for 5 seconds, allowed him to pass, then got back in the left lane if she felt it was necessary.

It’s not a turn, it’s a fork in the road. Hold on, I’ll draw a diagram.

Ok, fork in the road. It appears that it was at least 2 miles away at the time the video started. She had no reason to be in that lane so early.

Ugh. Google Maps doesn’t even show it accurately.

I’m not saying she was right, but she wasn’t driving abnormally for that area, except too fast for my taste (I tend to stay just under the speed limit myself).

It’s a bad intersection. A really bad one. Accidents happen there all the time, because there’s a blind light right after the sharp left fork (hidden by “community beautification” trees), and a stop light with a merge lane right before it, and the fork.

In that place, if you’re not in the left lane and you’re trying to take Nebraska, you’re either going to get pushed into the Florida turn because of assholes that don’t know how to let someone in, or you’re going to have to cut someone off. So, it’s safest to just stay left if you know you’re going Nebraska. A last minute shift from the right to the left lane makes you over turn left, and cars flip there all the time when the roads are wet. Because once again: Floridians don’t know how to drive.

Again, not saying she was right, but her actions (apart from the filming) are normal for that area.

Now, who’s for mandated drivers’ education courses in Florida? Because, we don’t have that.

That particular wreck was caused by the guys idiot impatience. Totally avoidable.

@Dutchess_III If you watch the video again you’ll see that her speedometer reads 60mph. The numbers are in increments of 20.

I’ll look again.

Yep, my bad. 60. She should get a ticket too. I wonder why he was in such a hurry. Was there an emergency at home or something?