I hope everyone will forgive me the sensationalist headline -- and the fact that this event took place just outside of the GTA -- but this video clip is just too remarkable not to share. Shot by a driver who came perilously close to colliding head-on with a tractor trailer that crossed the median on the 401 near Milton yesterday, the whole scene is rather chilling.



Why, one wonders, was this guy filming out the window of his car while driving on the highway? According to an interview I caught with him on CP24, where he sent the footage, after having previously been in a no-fault accident that led to problems with his insurance company, he decided that in the future he'd keep a video record while driving so that he'd have evidence should he ever need it in a dispute. Sounds a bit over the top, but it's mounted on the dash not being held in his hands. And, hey, he captured this video didn't he?

Miraculously, no one was seriously injured in the crash. Check out the footage below. And for slightly better quality, but way more sensationalism, here's the link to the CP24 coverage (see bottom half of article).

Update (Sunday, January 23):

Now that this has been picked up by CNN and other news outlets, there's been even more confusion about where the crash happened. The origin of this is, no doubt, the fact that the video's opening screen mislabels the location as "Highway 401, Barrie, Ontario, Canada." As most people around the Greater Toronto Area know, the 401 runs east/west and doesn't go anywhere near Barrie (which is north of the city on highway 400). As I mention below, I suspect the reason for the mislabeling is that a major accident took place in the latter area on the same day. If you follow the link to CP24's coverage, it describes both accidents. For those who prefer visuals, here's a Google Map of approximately where the crash that was videotaped took place.

And here are some descriptions of the crash, including a couple from YouTube in which commenters claim they were the parties involved.

From driver - "I'm the driver in this video ;) It's a VW Tiguan. The video is deceiving because I really saw the truck start to slide side-to-side ahead of time, at which time I braked pretty hard, allowing the truck to passďťż by me so I could get in behind it. Yes I felt as if I had good reflexes in this situation, but it was also advance anticipation."

From a nearby driver - "I was just a few short seconds behind the car that tookďťż the video... pretty scary stuff!! Needless to say I took the day off work yesterday!! thank god no one was hurt!! pretty amazing driving by the videographer...

From CTV - "According to the OPP around 8:15 a.m. an eastbound tractor-trailer veered across two lanes of traffic and hit the concrete center median.The cab of the truck went over the median into the westbound lanes, while the trailer, which was carrying 30 tonnes of sand, stayed in the eastbound lanes.Two eastbound and three westbound vehicles were struck in the crash. Another tractor-trailer was disabled after it hit debris from the collision."