A Queensland truckie has shared dash cam footage after he was involved in a crash caused by dangerous behaviour from two other motorists on the Bruce Highway last week.
Gavin Shreiweis, a staff driver with Team Transport and Logistics, was on his daily run when he noticed a Mazda Hatchback tailgating a Subaru in the lane to his right.
The Subaru then began to brake check the Mazda, before both cars then sped past Shreiweis’ truck.
The Mazda tried to change lanes but the Subaru brake checked it again, and the Mazda swerved in front of the truck – spinning out and crashing into multiple vehicles.
Meanwhile, the Subaru sped away from the incident, which happened at Palmview on the Sunshine Coast about 2.30pm last Wednesday.
Thankfully, Shreiweis managed to bring his truck to a stop in just three seconds, and no-one was seriously injured in the incident – but things could have turned out very differently.
Kylie Wilkinson, general manager at Team Transport and Logistics, told Big Rigs that she is proud of Shreiweis’ quick thinking.
“We had the police calling us straight away asking for the dash cam footage, because the Subaru had taken off,” she said.
“Gavin was pretty shaken up after the crash but when we saw the footage, I told him he had done all the right things.”
Wilkinson said Shreiweis instinctually wanted to pull left because of what was happening on the right.
“I commended him because he did the calculations really quickly in his head and knew he couldn’t take that risk.
“There was a council truck coming up fast on the left, and the car actually pierced that truck’s gas tank.
“Both trucks were doing 100km/h and if Gav had pulled to the left, it would have been a disaster.”
Wilkinson is calling on motorists to make more of an effort to safely share the road.
“People make bad decisions on the road every day, and they might not have malice in their hearts but they are just not thinking.
“In a split second, your life and the lives of other people could be changed forever.
“The majority of truck drivers just want to do their job and get home to their families at the end of the day.
“There are real people in these cars and trucks and you need to think about that.”
There seems to be new rules for the road. Rule 1: If you are going too slow then I will tailgate you until you get out of my way. Rule 2: If I am going as fast or slow as I please and you are tailgating me I will brake suddenly to drive you off the road. Not working very well is it?