A Toyota Corolla Cross and Volkswagen Jetta collided in downtown Vancouver, Washington, on Sept. 24, and the result looks wildly disproportionate to the contact that sets it off. The Corolla Cross pitches over and lands on its passenger side, leaving the sort of video that invites an immediate replay.
Officers responded at about 10:49 a.m. near Broadway and West 13th Street, just outside the Clark County District Court building, Vancouver Police said. Neither driver was injured.
Police believe distracted driving was a factor in the collision. That may help explain why the vehicles met in the first place.
It does considerably less to resolve the stranger part of the footage: how such an ordinary-looking downtown crash ended with a Corolla Cross lying on its side.
That Escalated Quickly
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The clip starts with the Corolla Cross approaching the Jetta on what looks like an otherwise unremarkable city street. There is contact, the Toyota begins to climb and tip, and within moments the crossover is resting on its side.
It is dramatic enough to look like the aftermath of something much faster or more violent, which helps explain why so many people in the comments skipped straight past questions of fault and started trying to work out the physics.
One person summed up the prevailing reaction with, “Ohhhhh that’s how people roll their cars on straight roads.” Another offered the considerably more economical, “Almost nailed that stunt.”
A third found perhaps the most Toyota-appropriate description possible: the Corolla Cross was, quite literally, going places.
Moving Forward
The internet did not reach anything resembling a consensus about how the collision unfolded.
Some commenters thought the Jetta moved into the Toyota’s path. Others believed the Corolla Cross was trying to get around it. Several focused on the Toyota crossing the centerline, while still more immediately blamed a cellphone despite police not specifying what form the suspected distraction took.
The rollover itself generated less disagreement than bewilderment.
“Wild how the Toyota flipped that easily,” one commenter wrote.
Another coined “Coroll-over,” which is difficult to improve upon.
And because no overturned-car comment section would apparently be complete without it, several people independently arrived at some version of “You can’t park there.”
Whatever sequence of steering, braking, and contact produced the final result, the fortunate part is considerably easier to understand: Vancouver Police said nobody in either vehicle was hurt.