A truck driver involved in a Queensland highway crash caused when a driver brake-checked a tailgater has described their actions as “idiocy”.
Cameras in Gavin Shreiweis’ truck filmed the crash on the Bruce Hwy at Palmview, on the Sunshine Coast, about 2.30pm on Wednesday.
Shreiweis was one lane away from a Mazda 3, which the camera footage shows being driven less than 1m behind a Subaru.
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The footage shows the Subaru driver brake-checking — or braking suddenly but momentarily while being tailgated — twice.
After the second brake-check, the Mazda veered across lanes before fishtailing and crashing into Shreiweis’ truck and another truck.
Shreiweis told 7NEWS the Mazda “overcorrected” after trying to avoid rear-ending the Subaru.
“This is what happens when idiocy on the roads can go wrong, and did go wrong,” he told 7NEWS.
The 20-year-old man behind the wheel of the Mazda escaped injury, while the Subaru continued on — having avoided the wreckage.
Shreiweis said he was “amazed” the Mazda driver was able to “walk away” from the crash.
“It could have gone the wrong way,” he said.
“I just said (to the Mazda driver), ‘What were you thinking?’.
“His comment was, ‘Oh, the other driver brake-checked me’.”
Shreiweis said while he avoided physical injury, he was “rattled” by the crash and has lost sleep.
“It took me a while — 45 minutes — to calm me down,” he said.
“I’m glad I didn’t swerve into another lane. That’s instinct. My subconscious kicked in and kept me in that lane … because if I would have gone left, I would have hit that other truck and gosh knows what would have happened after that.”
He said of all the “stupidity on the road I go through every day” during his 20-year driving career, it was the first time he had seen such driver behaviour result in a crash.
No charges have been laid over the incident, with police calling on any witnesses to come forward.
Investigations continue.