When we use Google Maps as a tool to help us reach a destination, it's easy to forget that the stitched-together 360° images were captured in real-time by Street View cars with special cameras that pick up whatever is happening along the way.
But things don't always go as planned.
In this particular instance, a Google Street View car that was actively capturing images on a road collided with a motorcyclist who appeared to have made a U-turn in front of it.
The images have been preserved for posterity.
Footage of one perspective of the accident was screen-grabbed by an eagle-eyed user and posted on the "Idiots In Cars" subReddit.
You can see the video here:
from IdiotsInCars
The clip showed a dusty road with the motorcyclist off in the distance.
As the user advanced in the direction they were traveling via Google Maps, the motorcyclist who was situated at a perpendicular angle to the car came into view.
As the footage progressed, the motorcyclist disappeared for a brief moment only to re-appear, seemingly suspended in the air, to indicate they were hit and consequently knocked off their bike.
The clip ended with a view from behind the Street View car with the victim laying on the side of the road in a cloud of dust.
It was speculated on the thread that the incident took place at a location in Youpe Amadi, Senegal.
Google
Twitch streamer polispol1 was credited with finding the images.
Their video showed a clearer image of the motorcyclist at the point of impact.
polispol1/Twitch
polispol1/Twitch
polispol1/Twitch
Redditors shared their thoughts.
One Redditor wrote:
"If you turn the camera around in the first image where the dude got hit, there's a woman throwing her hands up in the airin reaction to this incident."
A second said:
"If you go down the street there’s a guy riding a motorcycle with a goat in his lap. I lost coordinates so I may never find him again."
A third remarked:
"I would have sworn this was a video game we're looking at without this comment."
Many were baffled as to how images such as these managed to slip past a proper vetting process.
Redditor imaguitarhero24 had questions.
"How tf does this make it on google? They’re not uploading in real time lmao are they?"
"I’d think he’d go back and drive past the area without the crash for there to be a clean version to upload?"
"Or at least blurred this out, but maybe it just slipped through the cracks. I really know nothing about the operations of the street view team tbh."
Twitter was also gobsmacked.
Some questioned the motorcyclist's actions.
Whatever the case may be, hopefully, the struck motorcyclist survived without sustaining any serious injury.