Dashcam footage captured the moment an out-of-control gravel truck barreled down Main Street in Tooele, Utah recently, narrowing missing slamming into that car head-on. When the dust settled 33 cars were hit by the semi-truck, which burst into flames at the front of a car dealership where it finally came to rest. Somehow nobody was killed.
Police didn’t think the Booty Patrol truck was that funny.
Also visible in that dashcam footage is a guy who’s partway along the crosswalk, right in front of the gravel truck, when he sees it coming and dashes across the road. Talk about situational awareness coming in clutch.
Out of the 33 cars hit by the out-of-control truck, 27 were at the Ford dealership where the explosive end played out. News crews showed the showroom was all boarded up, so we don’t think they’re selling many vehicles since the accident. We also wonder who’s going to get sued for not only damages to the building and vehicles but also lost sales.
The truck’s brakes gave out and the driver tried navigating it through several intersections before it finally careened off the road and into the dealership parking lot. While nobody was killed, 11 people were hospitalized, one in critical condition.
According to the Tooele Transcript Bulletin, investigators concluded seven out of the eight brakes on the truck failed. It’s not apparent yet if the 26-year-old driver tried engine braking. An investigation is apparently still being conducted, so the exact cause of the crash still isn’t entirely known.
This situation just shows you never can predict what might happen on the road. This is why we tell people you have to stay aware, like the guy who was crossing the road, and be ready to make sudden adjustments. If you’re distracted you might miss your chance to dodge getting taken out by a runaway gravel truck or who knows what else.
