When we're out driving, we often see things that are absolutely wild. It's usually a driver doing something that makes us scratch our heads, face-palm, and yell, "What on earth are you thinking?!" Most of the time, nobody gets injured, but, fortunately for us, these days there's a good chance that horrible driver is caught on dashcam. Here are six of the best head-scratching moments caught on dashcam we've seen lately, and we think they'll leave you wondering what was going through the driver's mind too.
Pika what? Pikachu! Watch where you're going! The driver of this bright yellow BMW X6 with a matching Pikachu on the door didn't use side mirrors or blind-spot monitoring or even a shoulder check when they decided they wanted to move over a lane. They should try them, though, they're super effective against metal types. So are turn signals. What do you do after cutting someone off on Ontario's Highway 404? Charge off in a blast of revs and exhaust noise, of course.
Took the wrong way around the traffic circle? No problem, just pull a U-turn, right? That's what we think was going through the mind of this Ford Escape driver in Dartmouth. They missed the roundabout and took the bypass, and figured it would be just fine to pull a U-turn directly in front of other cars. Since there are other cars on the road, this nearly caused a collision. The dashcammer said they even got a dirty look from the bad driver.
This one doesn't have us scratching our heads because of someone doing something stupid, but rather because we're trying to figure out what we just saw captured on video. Caught near Falmouth, ME, this clip shows what looks like a deer or something else fast-moving darting across the road. But watch the slow-motion closely and it's not moving up and down like a running deer. It's also not reflecting any light like a deer, it's just a shadow. We're calling it a ghost dog, and a massive one at that. Yikes!
There's never a police officer around when you really need one, right? Well, sometimes there is. This light had been red for more than half a minute before a driver in a Toyota Camry decided either that it didn't apply to them, or, more likely, just weren't paying attention. An impressive last-inch (look at just how close the two cars were to a crash) swerve sent the Camry down the sidewalk of the next street, which could have ended in an even worse crash with a pedestrian. It was all captured on the dashcam of the Halton Regional Police officer sitting at the red light, who didn't waste much time finding the driver of the Camry.
This driver was said to have stolen a Mercedes-Benz in Vaughan, ON, and police wisely didn't start a pursuit knowing that the driver was being extremely dangerous and that there was a helicopter looking down. After a crash, several failed carjacking attempts, and the beginnings of a beat-down from the owner of another Mercedes-Benz (this thief has a preferred brand, apparently) the suspect fled into a Canadian Tire, then was apprehended in a nearby Shoppers Drug Mart. Seems very Canadian, other than the dangerous driving part.
Lastly, this one's just a still photo, but it was caught on an RCMP dashcam, and it shows you everything you need to know. See a driver behind the wheel of that Tesla Model S? You don't, because mounties said the driver and passenger were reclined and sleeping ... in a vehicle travelling 150 km/h. That's not exactly what Autopilot is for, folks, even if it handles some of the steering, you still need to be alert and paying attention. What were they thinking?
