In case you haven’t noticed, it’s been “hot AF” in the United States, and while that always makes for fun social media feed reading and humorous weather reports, the stifling heat can also be a hazard to those operating a motor vehicle, especially if it’s so hot, it causes the asphalt covering the roadway to crack and buckle, creating a launch ramp that would make the Duke boys proud.
The video in question, which has gained a measure of viral popularity:
It should be noted that the passengers in the airborne SUV survived their unexpected flight, although they were taken to the local hospital after complaining about pain in their back and neck. You don’t say? As some YouTube commenters pointed out, perhaps the driver should’ve heeded the warnings and slowed down; although, some countered that by saying the signs were poorly placed:
This is like having a no trespassing t-shirt that people can barely see behind the barrel of my gun. Why put the signs ON THE BUMP?!?! Go go gadget shock absorbers.
As pointed out by Channel 18, WQOW in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the person who filmed the now-viral video was shocked by what she saw:
“From the overpass we could see the big divots, but we’d stopped to take a picture of it because we’d seen a bunch of cars going over slowly, and scraping the underside of their cars. They were kind of lining up, checking the damage,” said Theresa Reich from Eau Claire. Reich and her brother-in-law had stopped on that overpass to take a picture of Highway 29. What Theresa didn’t realize was that as she tried to take a still picture of the pavement, the camera in her phone was already rolling… and it captured video of an SUV that went up the ramp, crossed the other lane of traffic, narrowly missed another vehicle… before coming to rest off the road.
The road has been subsequently closed in order for repairs to be made, something WQOQ addressed in one of their followup newscasts. It should be noted that since its upload on July 1, 2012, the video has already received over 100,000 views, securing its viral popularity.
[Via Neatorama, Lead image courtesy]