Speeding Camry Soars Over California Highway in Hollywood-Style Crash
It nearly landed on a passing car with a rolling dashcam.
Car crashes take on different forms, from the minor annoyance of a fender-bender to the more critical kind that involves the attention of emergency services. But every once in a while there's a car crash so bizarre that you just have to figure out how it went down—this is one of those accidents.
Around 7:19 a.m. local time on July 14, a speeding Toyota Camry in Yuba City, California was caught on camera as it flew through the air and landed hard on the pavement below. The incident was reported on by CBS Sacramento and a video was posted to YouTube where it quickly became a viral hit.
At the moment the Camry crested the hill, a vehicle with a dash cam happened to pass by. One of the passengers spotted the car coming over the embankment and screamed, alerting the driver to stop the car only a few feet away from the crash.
The flying sedan landed face-first into the pavement, then continued to flip onto its roof before coming to a rest. The witnessing vehicle's occupants called 911 and went to check on the car's driver.
You can watch the dash cam's view below with the action starting around 40 seconds in. Just a warning—you'll want to turn down your speakers for this one.
MIS Inc, an equipment shop near the scene of the accident, caught the car flying off the road at another angle on security cameras set up near a job site.
One of the employees estimates that the car was driving between 80 and 100 mph on a street near Highway 99 right before the crash. That particular stretch of road, which runs adjacent to MIS Inc, has a 25-mph speed limit according to the employee.
While not the best resolution, the footage shows the Toyota failing to make a sharp left turn and then ramping off of a steep embankment, somehow squeezing between two sets of power lines without touching them and disappearing. The footage from the YouTube video above picks up on the other side.
Here's a better visual of how the camera angles line up:
While the employee speculated that the car was trying to beat other cars to its destination, police quickly learned that wasn't the case. As it turns out, the California Highway Patrol alleges that the vehicle may have been involved in a hit and run only moments earlier after driving backward on Highway 99 and then exiting an on-ramp.
CBS Sacramento says police confirmed that the driver survived with only minor injuries despite the wild accident, adding that intoxication was not a factor. No arrests were made at the time of the accident, though several news sources say the hit-and-run is currently being investigated.
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