If you’ve ever driven through Columbus during rush hour, you’ve probably noticed the SmartLane on I-670: that extra shoulder lane that lights up green when traffic gets heavy and shuts down with a red X the rest of the time. It’s a clever bit of engineering, turning an emergency shoulder into a functional traffic lane without the state having to pour a single extra foot of pavement. Most days, it does exactly what it’s supposed to do.
This week, though, it did something else entirely, and it involved a driver who apparently decided the red X was more of a suggestion than a rule.
Ohio Department of Transportation cameras caught the whole thing on video, reported The Columbus Dispatch. An SUV had pulled into the closed SmartLane with someone standing outside the vehicle, presumably dealing with some kind of car trouble. That part alone isn’t unusual; shoulders exist for breakdowns. What happened next is the part that makes your stomach drop. A truck came down the closed lane, saw the SUV, and merged out of the way like a normal, sane human being. Then a second vehicle came through, didn’t slow down, and plowed straight into the parked SUV. The person standing outside had to leap onto the median wall to keep from getting hit themselves…