Learning how to drive a car is an especially daunting experience. I certainly remember my heart beating loudly when I first rode on the street, as I was very much afraid of crashing my vehicle. That does not seem to be the case for this California teen, though. In a video that has now gone viral on Reddit, she appears rather relaxed and upbeat behind the wheel of a white Mercedes. However, the problem is that she kept backtalking to her instructor, who was sitting right next to her.
The clip began with the instructor telling her to stay in the lane. The teen asked, “What lane?” which the instructor pointedly gestured to, indicating the one they were currently driving in. The girl then said that she thought the instructor was referring to the bike lane. It was unclear whether this was meant as a joke or not. Either way, things suddenly escalated very quickly as they approached the red light.
The instructor began telling her to stop, but she kept hitting the gas. He raised his voice and told her to stop again, but she continued pressing the gas and did not reduce her speed, instead saying, “I got you.” He then screamed, “Jesse, stop!” As the back of the car in front of them drew closer and closer, she still did not hit the brake. Instead, she screamed, “Oh my God!” and the white Mercedes crashed into the vehicle that had stopped ahead of them.
Thankfully, nobody was hurt, though the instructor repeated in an exasperated and hopeless tone, “Jesse… stop…” The California teen covered her mouth, looking back and forth between the car and the instructor. The video also included a photo of the ruined white Mercedes-Benz, with the entire front side of the car severely damaged.
It wasn’t just the instructor who was exasperated by the California girl crashing the Mercedes. Many internet users on Reddit were equally flabbergasted by what could only be described as a completely preventable accident. “The audacity to be shocked,” one user commented. Many couldn’t understand why the teen kept talking and then screaming instead of simply listening to instructions and hitting the brake.
Another user pointed out that things might have gone differently if this had happened in Germany instead of the United States. As one commenter put it, “In Germany, where everything is regulated down to the individual screw, driving instructors have their own set of pedals. They can brake for the student, if necessary.”