Dashcam footage shows the moment a woman who was texting while driving crashed a rental car after losing control of the vehicle.
A woman was caught on camera texting with both hands while driving, leading her car to veer off the road and collide with a street sign.
The woman is heard screaming and slurring as she notices that the vehicle is running off the road and attempts to regain control of the car.
But as the car comes to a halt, the woman places her head in her hands and wails in fury.
Jose Arevalo, 18, had rented out his 2013 Nissan Leaf on the car-sharing app Turo to the woman on August 25.
Shortly before she was scheduled to return the vehicle, Jose received a message from her claiming she had been forced off the road and that the car was now with a towing company.
But after reviewing his vehicle’s dashcam footage, he unveiled the truth behind the car accident.
Jose, a part-time trampoline park employee from Arlington, Washington, said: ‘I was shocked when I saw the dashcam.
Dashcam footage shows the moment a woman who was texting while driving crashed a rental car
The moment the vehicle drove off the road was captured on camera
The woman had rented out the vehicle on car-sharing app Turo
‘I believed what she texted me and thought someone had really driven her off the road.
‘To see her so blatantly texting and then so clearly lie about it seemed so strange to me.’
Jose reported that she later told him she had contacted the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and filed a claim with Turo, conveniently leaving out her texting while driving.
Jose had only started renting his car on a week earlier to make extra money after his work hours were cut short.
He had installed the dashcam six months prior for safety and had always informed his renters about it.
Jose said: ‘One of the first things I thought of when she texted me about the accident was the dashcam, but she didn’t say anything about it.
‘I just took her work on what happened because I figured, who would lie on a police report?’.
Repair estimates came to $4,959, which he says outweigh the cost of a new car.
The woman was then seen screaming and covering her face following the crash
A different angle of the dashcame footage showed the car driving off the road
The woman then hit a sign, causing significant damage to the car
This incident follows another in the UK, where a distracted van driver collided with a broken down vehicle, severely injuring the other driver.
Nathan Cole later admitted he had been checking social media while driving a Volkswagen van at high speeds down the A27 in West Sussex, police said.
He failed to see a Peugeot which had stopped on the hard shoulder of the busy dual carriageway, and careered into the back of the stationary vehicle.
The other driver suffered devastating injuries, needing surgery to have their leg amputated and spent time in a coma.
Dashcam footage shows Cole from Brighton frequently glancing down at his phone while traveling at 72mph, exceeding his vehicle’s speed limit by 12mph, according to police.
The broken down car then comes into view, before he smashes into the back. His airbag goes off and Cole then exits the vehicle.
The 29-year-old admitted causing serious injury by dangerous driving at a hearing at Worthing Magistrates’ Court on April 8.
Cole faced sentencing on June 13 at Lewes Crown Court, receiving two years and four months in prison and a driving ban of four years and four months.
