In honor of Jalopnik.com “Crash Week” I present an image I took last week of an accident I witnessed in Hoboken. This is the second time in the past few months that I’ve watched cars turning left into traffic and getting smashed.

We were sitting at a red light and I was the second car, behind the Volvo SUV seen above. When the light went green the Mercedes driver decided took left turn immediately, trying to beat all of us going straight. Wrong move on a rainy day.

The Volvo drove into the intersection, oblivious of the Mercedes.  The Mercedes slowed down, then the Volvo driver slowed also when she noticed the Mercedes was coming into her lane. Both drivers asumed the other one was stopping and I watched as they drove right into each other at 5-8MPH. The wheel on the Mercedes tucked under the wheel-well so nicely.

I was somewhat of an accomplice in the other accident. I was driving in Newark, NJ and traffic was heavy. Cars in the intersection in front of me were at a standstill, so I waited back so I wouldn’t get caught in the middle when the light went red. This gave enough room for a Mercedes coming in the other direction to take a left in front of me. I glanced at the passenger side-view mirror and saw a taxi coming up rapidly on the right. The next 2 seconds felt like 2 minutes. I knew they were going to collide, but I was unable to do anything about it. I was a spectator just waiting for impact.

The cab was  going around 30 and slammed the Mercedes rear quarter panel, splintering the bumper off the back and crushing the body. Both drivers got out and stared at their cars. The lights cycled through to green again and I drove off, knowing the traffic jam there was about to get much worse.