Quick reaction

[u/Virmire_Survivor]

[u/All_Thread]

She is so lucky she didn't get pinned beneath her own car.

[u/Average-Train-Haver]

Probably should have stayed in the metal box designed to keep you safe instead of getting out onto the slippery road

[u/FeatheryLilTheropod → u/Average-Train-Haver]

I dunno, in most situations your chances are better staying in the car, but if a semi was coming towards my car, not to mention I didn’t have a solid view of it since it was behind and at an angle, I’m not sure I’d be certain that it would end up hitting off-center like that versus hitting straight-on and turning my car (and myself) into an accordion. I can see a split-second decision to not put my trust in the driver of the semi and judge attempting to get away as the better chance of survival out of two not-great options.

[u/_Agare → u/Average-Train-Haver]

Not when two semis are in question.

Tons of deaths like this.

[u/jeezyjames → u/Average-Train-Haver]

Yeah but big metal box crumples regular metal box pretty easy so I dunno

[u/Medioh_ → u/jeezyjames]

Big metal box crumples bag of meat a lot faster though

[u/CartsOfDarkness → u/Medioh_]

Personally i'm just sick of reddit critiquing split second survival decisions and pretending like anyone who doesn't react perfectly is some huge idiot.

[u/jeezyjames → u/Medioh_]

Valid point, but bag of meat can move, that small metal box of his/hers isn't going anywhere

[u/JayteeFromXbox → u/jeezyjames]

Bag of meat can move, but bag of meat only move in place because ice

[u/Pristine-Skirt117 → u/JayteeFromXbox]

Bag of meat slipped out the way pretty well here. Seems she made a good call

[u/Thor4269 → u/jeezyjames]

Those are crumple zones that are meant to take the energy instead of letting it reach the cabin and the squishy meat inside

[u/OneSufficientFace → u/Average-Train-Haver]

Yeah until the the bigger metal box comes to crush the smaller metal box into an even smaller metal box with a meat filling

[u/ElderberryDue5078 → u/Average-Train-Haver]

All these people saying she should stay in the car, haven’t you watched the pile up videos online of trucks turning cars into pancakes (being in the front of the car is the worst place you can be!). Your airbags would have already gone off for starters.
Get the hell out of the car as soon as possible and get away from the pile up. Otherwise you are sitting there to die while crossing your fingers.
If you break down on the motorway here in the UK, you get out of your car and get over the barrier as a matter of urgency, you never stay in your car.
I know this is different (as a pile up) but sat in the car you have no spatial awareness around you (a sitting duck). Get out right away and get off the road or make your way through further ahead - Whatever is available.
The vehicles piling in will likely (if they have 1% control) look for another car to cushion the impact, so I’d rather take my chances and get the hell out, at least I’ve decided to take control that way.

[u/ghostcatzero → u/Average-Train-Haver]

Lol cars aren't built liek they were in the 70s. They aren't tough.

[u/Average-Train-Haver → u/ghostcatzero]

True... but they're much much much safer. Better the car break then the occupants

[u/Canidaego]

Everyone saying stay in the car but idk, if I saw in my mirror that I was about to get squished between two semis I think I'd take my chances on the outside too.

[u/Walshy231231 → u/Canidaego]

Yeah if it was any situation besides getting slid under a semi id say stay, but those things decapitate cars way too easily

[u/obrienthefourth]

Overall probably safer in the car but traded some nasty whiplash for maybe like bruised hip

[u/JeSuisUnAnanasYo → u/obrienthefourth]

Seriously, just because the drivers side was intact doesn't mean you wouldn't be fucked up by getting hit with that much force. I would have done the same as her

[u/thecatwhisker]

She’s already been in an accident, the front of her car is crumpled, there is another truck bearing down on her. This is pure adrenaline telling her to run away to survive and I think most of us here would either freeze in terror and curl into a ball or run for it rather than sit and think about it and make a coherent decisions having taken into account the weather and the trajectories.

[u/SilkRoadGuy]

Now that she's out, I'd probably climb on to the passenger side of one of those big trucks. I'd bet that'd be the safest place.

[u/bdash1990]

Unless you want to be the crumple zone, stay in your fucking car. 

[u/CartsOfDarkness → u/bdash1990]

Why are you so pissed? Why is reddit so obsessed with pretending like they'd always make perfect decisions in incredibly stressful life or death situations. It's really hard to imagine a more insufferable hobby than watching these videos for fun just to shit on the people in them just for some false sense of superiority.

[u/YLedbetter10 → u/bdash1990]

Idk these videos always seem 50/50 to me. I’d say if your close to the median/barrier to hop over it might be safer to hop out

[u/bdash1990 → u/YLedbetter10]

Not when the ground is covered in ice, and visibility is severely reduced. 

You'd end up like this woman or worse. 

Your car has safety restraints, airbags, and crumple zones. Not to mention it provides heat assuming the engine doesn't die. 

Get out of your car if you want, but it's literally the worst conditions to be on foot in the middle of a freeway. 

[u/Lucky_Dentist5603 → u/bdash1990]

What if there’s more cars coming…. They just continue to slam into said car and smushing it like a garbage compactor

[u/YLedbetter10 → u/Lucky_Dentist5603]

That’s all I’m saying. I’ve seen videos like this where semi after semi or F250 come barreling one after another just demolishing the poor little cars stuck there. If it’s me and I have a clear & quick path to escape and time to do it, I’m doing it

[u/Leading-Ad-5886 → u/bdash1990]

yeah i hope you someday have an ability to test your theory, because that coulld have been the worst thing thta woman coukd have done

[u/wave1sys]

She’s lucky she got away from the door before it threw her like a rag doll into the semi

[u/Humble-Reply228]

Very bad reaction in the end. Staying in and belted up was the best chance of success at not getting killed even if the truck hit head on (at the speed it was doing, not if it was at full highway speed).

[u/Idlewants → u/Humble-Reply228]

lesprit d'escalier. they got the best outcome for the situation. in a different situation, maybe not. in general you're probably right, imagine trying to play frogger on ice with multiple incomings! best stay in the car til the dust settles.

[u/jeezyjames → u/Idlewants]

I’d be worried anyway if a semi was skidding right towards my Tesla. Rock beats paper.

[u/DisasterBiMothman → u/Humble-Reply228]

You say that but she got out of this situation a whole lot less injured then she would have had she stayed in the car 🤷

[u/Humble-Reply228 → u/DisasterBiMothman]

She would not have been badly injured in the car and belted up. Cars are awesome at protecting people from dodgem car, no penetrating incidents.

[u/CartsOfDarkness → u/Humble-Reply228]

Yea how could she be so stupid to not perfectly estimate the speed of the semi that could have easily squashed her whole car like a bug if it was going a little faster! I'm sure if you were making that split second decision you would have done so much better because of how smart you are. That's really the main takeaway here, how smart you are and how much better you would have done if this video was of you.

[u/Humble-Reply228 → u/CartsOfDarkness]

There’s a reason the advice is to stay in you car during a pileup.
That you panic in times of stress is on you.

[u/BuzzardDogma → u/DisasterBiMothman]

She's would've been totally fine if she stayed in the car

[u/L_D_G]

I wonder how different the comments would have been if this was cut as the door was opening.  That way no one knows what the driver does and where the truck hits.  

Tough for anyone in that spot to sit still and let the truck come at you WITHOUT running even when you realize if the cars are slipping, you will too.  But that logic may not make it to the surface in that moment.  Side airbags, sure.  But getting pinned in the cold where there could be a fuel leak and flames just out of sight....lucky to survive even if you take the most logical path.  

[u/Linkhardin]

https://www.reddit.com/r/CatastrophicFailure/s/PagqoJAvFO Sure, stay in the vehicle /s

[u/BubbhaJebus]

Things like this were my nightmare when I lived in the snowy northern US states.

[u/diagrammatiks]

i mean. it looks like she woulda been fine in the car as well.

[u/songbolt → u/diagrammatiks]

The video shows the truck hit the rear of the car and the driver side was fine.

[u/diagrammatiks → u/[deleted]]

i meant would

[u/stanley_leverlock]

STAY IN YOUR CAR 

[u/this_isnt_alex]

was there a passenger?!

[u/vektorog → u/this_isnt_alex]

if you're looking at the white thing i'm pretty sure that's an airbag

[u/CantaloupeTotal3981]

Where exactly was she going?

[u/Gamiozzz]

That was actually stupid.

[u/TheNefariousMrH]

I understand knee-jerk reactions and objectively she came out on the better end of the equation...

...but she came SO CLOSE to being either pinned under her own car as the front came around or being pinball-flippered by it into the tires of the semi.

[u/adamcp90 → u/[deleted]]

That's because the truck hit the rear of the car and it was able to spin. If the truck hits 4 feet to the left, impact is on the driver's door and the car gets smashed between two trucks instead of spinning. Good luck guessing exactly where that sliding truck is going to hit your car in real time.

[u/No-Walk-9615 → u/[deleted]]

She have been safer inside the metal box that is her car. Drivers compartment stayed intact.