Driving at night can be somewhat perilous. Depending on how well lit a road or street is, it can be a little daunting. But at least other road users will have their headlights on, right? Sadly for the driver in this dashcam footage, that wasn’t the case.
Footage uploaded to Reddit by user KailaniGlen has shown what happens if there is a car coming down the road that doesn’t have its headlights on. The video was uploaded to the r/dashcams subreddit, and it has over 7,000 upvotes at the time of writing this article.
In the video, we are on board a car that is attempting to make a left turn to head down the other side of a highway. A car in front of us has already made its turn, while we are waiting to do so. Suddenly, as the car turns, another appears heading the other way without its headlights on.
You can probably guess what happened next. The car travelling in the other direction slammed into the dashcam vehicle and caused a huge amount of damage, and no doubt shocked the occupants of the dashcam vehicle. Reddit users inevitably waded in on the accident in the comments section.
What We See in the Dashcam Footage
Tough to see a dark vehicle at night no lights FML
by
u/KailaniGlen in
dashcams
The car in front makes a left turn at the green light and pulls away as normal. It is then our turn to do so in the dashcam vehicle. One car comes shooting straight past us, with its lights on, however, meaning it was easy to spot. But just as we begin to make our left turn, another car appears, this time with its headlights turned off.
This time, the car doesn’t have its headlights on. So in the darker conditions, having just had a flash of light go past us, the driver simply didn’t spot the car coming the other way. There was no chance for either of the cars to react, and there was an inevitable crash. Just before the crash, we can hear the dashcam car’s driver let out an expletive and floor the throttle to try to get out of the way, but it was too late.
We can hear him shout “Bruh” as the car slams into the side of his car. “God daymn,” he can be heard saying, as it also appears his car detected the impact and had already begun calling 911. Even watching the video, with the camera no doubt having enhanced the light slightly, it is difficult to see the black car without its headlights on, and the accident seemed inevitable. But what did Reddit users think?
Reddit Users Believed the Car With No Headlights On Was at Fault
Most were of the mindset that it was the car coming towards the dashcam vehicle, without its headlights on, that was at fault for the accident. “He didn’t even have his headlights on; doesn’t that make it his fault?” said the top comment. A detailed explanation then followed from user Backwoods_Therapy. “Yes. Saw this video or one like it a while back on a “lawyer reacts” channel, and it absolutely makes the darker car at fault. Driving without headlights at night is illegal, and this is one reason why – even if you (think) you can see fine, others might not be able to see you,” they said.
“Without the dash cam, the turning car would likely be ruled at fault, but with this evidence, the darker car will be assigned close to or 100% of the fault,” they concluded. So in short, yes, the car coming the other way was absolutely at fault in this instance for not having its headlights on. Otherwise, the dashcam car driver would likely have seen them and not attempted to make the left turn.