Watch as an avalanche of runaway lumber wipes the car right off the highway

There is one thing that will pop into the minds of my fellow millennials when they first see this video: Final destination 2. While it’s not exactly like the famous log scene from the 2003 film, it still involves lumber falling from a truck and crashing into other cars. Fortunately, also unlike the movie, no one was hurt when an avalanche of a fallen tree took down a car on I-83 in Pennsylvania.

Uber driver Derek Gooderham was driving with his passenger on I-83 when he and his dash cam saw the trailer crash on I-81, on the bridge above. As a result, the entire load of lumber was thrown from the embankment onto I-83, and it overturned a car (2013-2016 Chevy Malibu?) away in what looked like a tidal wave of 2x4s. An avalanche of lumber hits the car and carries it across the entire lane, the curb, and onto the adjacent embankment.

Fortunately, the driver of the wrecked car is okay. “I just saw him get out of the car,” Gooderham said ABC27. “He waved his hand up and I assumed he was signaling that he was OK.” Additionally, PennDOT has not reported any injuries as a result of the incident.

While hitting the embankment wasn’t as severe, being hit at speed by a falling 2×4 has devastating potential. Lumber like this can easily go through car windows at those speeds, so the driver is lucky not to get hit by a board or dozen that shatter the passenger windows or even the windshield. I’m sure they came off pretty shaky, as a sudden wave of timber pushing you across the highway seems disconcerting to say the least.

Fortunately, only a few other cars were caught in the wood avalanche, but none were seriously injured. The video shows a pickup truck (maybe a Chevy Avalanche?) in front of the damaged vehicle, which may have caught some shrapnel, but it’s hard to tell. When this happened, the driver continued driving anyway. And Gooderham was far enough away to be able to hit the brakes and avoid falling lumber altogether. So, in this strange, sudden and incredibly dangerous accident, only one car was involved and no one was injured.

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