By james art 
SoCal resident and Redditor /u/Lightster shared dash cam footage from Irvine near The District from earlier this week (October 26, 2024) to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing a female driver in a Mercedes GLE 350 understeer with a relatively high speed at a traffic light.
Distracted? Possibly.
Check out his camera footage below.
[OC] She hit the traffic light; the pedestrian and i both wondered “is this real life?”
byu/lightster inIdiotsInCars
The accident happened at the intersection of Barranca Pkwy and Jamboree Rd in Irvine (Exact Google Maps location linked here.)
As his dash cam footage shows, the OP is stopped on Jamboree Rd, ready to go straight when his dash cam captures a female driver in a Mercedes GLE making a left turn at high speed.
Instead of making the turn, her trajectory sends her toward the traffic light.
She hits the traffic light hard, practically wrecking her Mercedes.
There is a Pole there
byu/MikeCoxmaull inorangecounty
Witnesses and good Samaritans around the accident rushed to the woman’s aid, checked if she was okay and collected large pieces of a crashed Mercedes in the immediate vicinity.
“After downloading my phone recording from my dash cam I went to the scene to see if the police wanted my footage. She was telling the officer she sat at the red light before turning. It looked like it had plenty of speed to fly out of a red light, but those turning lanes are pretty long.
“The police saw my footage and initially thought she was trying to run a red light, but based on traffic after the accident, I think the light was still green for a few seconds.”
“Luckily she missed the pedestrian and all the other vehicles. Her car was almost certainly wrecked, but the traffic light seemed to take the incident in stride.”
The woman’s only injury appears to be a cut to her finger.
“I think I heard the female driver cut her finger, which is quite a remarkable result given the force of the impact.”
While many commenters were skeptical of the woman’s account, at least one Redditor said it’s possible that what she told the police is what actually happened.
“I’m guessing it’s possible she was distracted while waiting a few cars back at a red light, finally noticed the cars in front had pulled off and pulled over to catch up,” /u/L4m3rThanYou replied.
Whether she was running a red light or not, she wasn’t paying attention and is now out of the vehicle.
Fortunately, she and no one else were hurt by her carelessness.