ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A Newfoundland man is sharing a dramatic video showing how he narrowly avoided a head-on collision with another vehicle, in hopes of shaming the driver he says nearly killed him.
"It was so close," Michael Newhook told VOCM radio about the close call Monday morning, as a pickup truck attempted to pass a car on Peacekeepers Way in Conception Bay South near St. John's.
In a Facebook post about the near-crash, Newhook encouraged people to share the video in an effort to "publicly shame" the driver.
"He nearly killed us both today ... what a moron," Newhook said in the Facebook post. "If I didn't need a paycheque so bad, I would have turned around and chased him."
The video has been viewed 220,000 times and shared more than 5,300 times.
It shows Newhook rounding a long curve to see a pickup truck in his lane. He utters a curse, lays on the horn and moves quickly to the shoulder as the truck misses his vehicle by perhaps a few feet. The car being passed seems unaware of the drama, making no obvious effort to get out of the way.
"Wow!" Newhook says on the video. "Whooo!"
Newhook told VOCM the whole thing seemed to go in slow motion and he could tell the driver was simply determined to pass the car.
Newhook said he was worried he wouldn't have room to evade the pickup truck.
"I was inches from the guardrail and I was worried as I hit the soft shoulder on a wet day like that, it actually dug in so when he was next to me, I was kinda steering toward him to keep my vehicle from hitting the guardrail and bouncing me right back out into the traffic that he already passed. I'm assuming it was a he," he told VOCM.
The Royal Newfoundland Constabulary said Tuesday that a 34-year-old man from Conception Bay South has been arrested and charged criminally with dangerous driving.
