A Toyota Camry driver reportedly stopped in the middle of Interstate 35 near Kansas City, then got out to confront the motorist behind him. His explanation for driving slowly? A spare tire.
The encounter happened during the morning commute, shortly before 7 a.m., when traffic was already building. A driver with a dashcam said he had slowed down to let the Camry merge onto the highway, but things quickly took a strange turn.
Instead of picking up speed, the Camry stayed well below the pace of surrounding traffic. The driver then reportedly braked hard and came to a complete stop, leaving the person recording little choice but to stop as well.
The footage appeared on r/dashcams in a post titled “My morning Commute last week.” The video sparked a debate about who should have handled the situation differently, though the decision to stop on a busy interstate drew particular attention.
Room to Merge
My morning Commute last week.
by
u/badbetsallday in
dashcams
According to the dashcam owner, he was traveling around 62 mph when the Camry entered I-35 from an on-ramp. To give the merging driver room, he reduced his speed to approximately 54 mph.
Normally, that would have been the end of it. Instead, the Camry continued traveling slowly, and its driver reportedly began braking in front of him. The dashcam owner said he was already slowing down when his vehicle’s collision warning system sounded.
As the encounter continued, his speed dropped to roughly 40 mph. At about the 1:17 mark in the recording, both vehicles stopped completely.
The Camry driver then got out to confront the person behind him, turning what had started as a routine merge into an argument on the highway.
Blame the Spare
During the exchange, the Camry driver reportedly pointed to a spare tire on the rear of his vehicle as the reason for his slow speed. The dashcam owner suggested there might have been two spare tires fitted to the back.
Temporary spare tires often have lower speed limits than regular tires, so drivers may need to drive cautiously. Still, the dispute raised a more pressing question: Why stop in an active traffic lane instead of pulling over somewhere safer?
The person recording said he had no interest in fighting. His main concern was getting to work, rather than getting into a roadside argument with another driver.
He also explained why he had not passed the Camry earlier. By the time his speed had dropped, vehicles in the adjacent lane were reportedly moving around 70 mph. Trying to merge into that traffic while traveling much slower did not seem like a good option.
Drivers Weigh In
On Reddit, commenters had plenty to say about the encounter. Some criticized the Camry driver’s actions, while others questioned whether the dashcam owner could have done more to avoid the confrontation.
One point of debate was his decision to remain in the right lane. When a commenter questioned that choice, the driver explained that his exit was only about a mile away.
Others focused on the distance between the two vehicles and whether passing sooner might have prevented the argument. The dashcam owner maintained that he had already slowed to accommodate the Camry before the braking began.
He later told commenters that he had shown the footage to roughly a dozen people before posting it online. Even after watching the recording, they were still struggling to understand the Camry driver’s behavior.