• Dashcam of the Week: 4WD can't cure driver error

    A big black pickup truck speeds past everyone else before spinning out and into a snow-covered rock outcrop in Ontario — to the musical stylings of Lady Gaga and some concerned dashcammers.
    Jan. 26, 2018
    2 min read
    Trucker 6566 012618dashcamontariopickup At

    There has been a lot of improvements to four-wheel and all-wheel drive over the past generation but manufacturers have yet to invent a cure for driver error.

    With Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” blasting on the stereo, our Dashcam of the Week features a pickup showing how it’s a gamble to “travel too fast for conditions.” The dashcam-equipped vehicle is cruising up a slushy Regional Road 55 in Sudbury, Ontario, late last year, as seen in a video posted this week by Reddit user carlagagne.

    As our dashcammer drives behind some heavy-duty trucks in Canada, a big black Ram 4x4 pickup speeds by everyone in the left lane and — before you know — you see a black blur fly into the rocky shoulder. The pickup driver spun out, according to the Redditor, and spun through both lanes on its way right into a rock cutout. “They guy was OK — the truck was not,” the poster wrote on YouTube.

    As the truck skids out of control and into the snow-covered rock outcrop a chorus of “Oh my Gods” is heard from inside the dashcam-equipped vehicle — and Lady Gaga is abruptly muted — before our dashcammer pulls over to check on the driver.

    If you like Gaga, watch the whole thing but if you’re just looking for the action, fast forward to around the 0:55 mark in this video.

    While there’s no confirmation, we can assume that this driver’s poker face is a bit easier to read than Lady Gaga’s.

    If you have a video you’d like to nominate for DashCam of the Week, please send the video link here.

    About the Author

    Josh Fisher

    Editor-in-Chief

    Editor-in-Chief Josh Fisher has been with FleetOwner since 2017. He covers everything from modern fleet management to operational efficiency, artificial intelligence, autonomous trucking, alternative fuels and powertrains, regulations, and emerging transportation technology. Based in Maryland, he writes the Lane Shift Ahead column about the changing North American transportation landscape. 

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