August 31, 2013

Look out!

This happened in Taiwan:



(Via Metafilter.)

IN THE COMMENTS: Ivy observes that you can see the beginning of this amazing incident at 0:03. She tells you where to look, but I won't put that on the front page. It's more interesting to watch the first time without the spoiler. If you watch this once, you will watch it more than once. I had watched this about 10 times without seeing what she pointed out.

25 comments:

Big Mike said...

I really enjoyed what happened around the one minute mark, when the driver of that white car gets out and seems to try to punch the boulder.

Craig Howard said...

Life sure can change from one instant to the next.

Anonymous said...

Someone cashed in their good karma that day.

Sorun said...

At about the 4 second mark, you can see some of the top of the hill collapse.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

woough. Back up slowly and find a diaper changing station for self.

David said...

Close one!

That is one big Falling Rock.

Anonymous said...

Okay, who did it? Godzilla or Iron Man?

MadisonMan said...

Result of a typhoon, I believe. Too much rain.

CWJ said...

Incredible reflexes!!!!! Wow!!! It looked like he had no time to react, and then the dust clears and he's in the left-hand lane with the rock almost rocking over on to him.

30yearProf said...

Looks like the Pacific Coast Highway in California.

Boom, you are dead.

Michael Ryan said...

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is why you always carry a spare pair of underwear in the glovebox.

Anthony said...

Lots more landslide video at http://blogs.agu.org/landslideblog/category/landslide-video/ . Lots of technical discussion, too.

Anonymous said...

When I was in high school in the late70s, a tree that appeared perfectly healthy fell and hit a car driving by, killing the driver. That was one of my first introductions to the randomness of life.

YoungHegelian said...

"Rock of Ages, dropped on me.
Let me drive away from thee."**


** I know, I know. 3 Our Fathers & 4 Hail Marys

Anonymous said...

Most dashcam videos turn out much worse.

Peter

Captain Curt said...

About 20 years ago, a rock about that size fell onto the Topanga Canyon Hwy in Los Angeles during a rainstorm. Nobody hurt and not caught on film, but they had to dynamite it to break it into pieces in order to remove it.

Paul said...

The idiot just got out of his car... heck I'd have backed up ASAP before more of that hill came down on the road.

Anonymous said...

at .03 you can see the rock fall away at the very top of the cliff.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

That white car is lucky lucky lucky.
It appears a blast of earth pushed it out of the way before the giant rock had a chance to smush the car into a pancake.

BigFire said...

Paul, there are some photo at the site in the related video http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=73d_1378025648 . It explained why the white car cannot back up. The front passenger side of the vehicle is totally smashed.

Anonymous said...

Live Leak has an updated video showing a house collapsing in this landslide, along with still photos of the road cleanup. While the driver of the white car was lucky to avoid being squashed, unfortunately the car suffered extensive damage and probably cannot be saved :(

Peter

Sam L. said...

YH, I heard it as

Rock of Ages, fall on me.
Wash my body out to sea.

Deb said...

@ironrails: People are just crazy behind the wheel. I was driving oin the Smoky Mountains, on a winding mountain 2 lane rd., 25 MPH speed limit, and a car actually passed me. Insane.

Clyde said...

I hope the white car's driver bought a lottery ticket while his good luck still held... After changing his underwear, of course.

Paul said...

BigFire,

Ok... then he should have run like heck!

That rock would have crushed that car like, well, a car crushing a tin can.