This is a first-person YouTube video by Kara and Nate Buchanan titled "we were in a car crash (scary)" documenting a taxi accident in Da Nang, Vietnam. The transcript covers their prior travel (long flights, layovers, driving across the U.S.), the moment the taxi slammed on brakes to avoid a motorbike and was hit from behind, immediate injuries/shock (e.g., sore teeth, possible head impacts), trapped luggage in the trunk requiring metal tools to access, police involvement, a trip to the police station to retrieve bags, and their relief at everyone being OK and getting to their hotel.
Chapters
Let us fill you in a little. This whole journey began a week ago when we started our much anticipated business class flights from Da Nang to New York and back.
On our layover in Hong Kong, we made three new friends, visited two beautiful lounges, flew 16 fabulous hours in business class, had a birthday party on the airplane, drove 12 hours through the night from New York to Michigan. Michigan. Danced the night away at my cousin's wedding, drove back to New York, met up with our friends, flew 16 hours back to Hong Kong. One more birthday party. And finally we arrived back in Da.
Nang.
After one of the craziest weeks of our lives. We were exhausted and ready to get to our hotel. So we got in one last taxi, and then.
By car.
Were you wearing your seatbelt?
No.
Oh, gosh. He was so hard.
Did you hit your head?
Just, I think just on this.
I think I hit it on this, too.
I think it's in a good spot, though. Like, I don't think my neck, like, went back.
That was really scary.
We had to slam on our brakes for a motorbike.
Get out.
Can we get our bags? Can you open the trunk?
Who was on the bike?
The cars are like, really?
I do the book and hotel and play. I go to one hour in the hotel. Okay.
So we're not exactly sure what to do right now because our bags are literally trapped in the back of the car. Like, it's going to take sawing metal, I think, to get our bags out. The police have been called, and now we're just waiting on the side of the road.
That really hurts.
My teeth hurt. I think I bit mine. It all just happened so quickly in the car. I just figured it was like a little fender bender. And then we got out, and.
So this motorbike pulled out right in front of us and stopped. And so we, like, stopped immediately. And then there was, like a two second delay. And then boom.
I was, like, exhaling that we hadn't just ran over this motorbike. An exciting start to our time in Vietnam.
Yeah, we're just going to hang out here and see what happens. We don't want to leave quite yet.
All right. The police did their work. Cars are moved out of the road. Our guy ripped the bumper off the back of our car, so maybe that'll free our bags. It's not looking promising. I'm actually curious if our bags are even still in one piece.
So the cars ended up being pulled over right next to a construction site. So we borrowed a metal bar, and we're trying to Pry open the trunk.
And now we're trying to see if we can pull the backs of the seats off to get to our backs.
Well, there goes our bags.
So our driver has been very apologetic and very nice, and we think we trust him. And he came up to us and tried to talk in English and tell us to get into the car with his friend. And then the police officer got in the front seat of our car, and they just left. And so now we're just standing here with his friend. I think maybe we're going to follow them somewhere. And our bags are still stuck. Like, we're getting in this way. Okay. Putting on my seat belt. It was on in the accident. I was wondering.
Sorry for this. No, it's okay.
It's okay.
We go to the police station to get your luggage.
Okay. Come on.
Everyone has been very nice at this point.
There seems to be a little confusion on where exactly the police station is.
Hey.
Wow. Way to go.
Wow. They survived.
Thank you. We got the bags. He wasn't celebrating as much as we were.
Okay.
All right.
We made it to our hotel.
That was an exciting start to our one day in Vietnam. So I think as far as car accidents go, like, there's never a good one, but everybody was okay. We got our bags back, and our driver and his friend were incredibly nice.
Yeah, I mean, when it first happened, I was really shocked, and there were a lot of unknowns. You know, like, we had known this guy for, like, five minutes, and he seemed nice in the car, but, you know, like, we didn't know if we were gonna get our bags back. And it's never happened to us before, and so we didn't know what to do. But the more I think about it, the more thankful we are that, like, a car didn't hit us from the side at that speed. I mean, it could have been so much worse. Our bags weren't completely smushed in the back.
Yeah. I thought for sure our bags were gonna be in pieces.
And just the fact that they were so nice and, like, caring for us meant a lot.
Okay.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's okay.
Yeah. And, I mean, it wasn't, like, our driver's fault. Like, the only person who I really think was at fault was the motorbike who pulled out in front of us. And so I just. By the end of it all, I was just feeling really bad for our driver.
Yeah.
Like, you could tell he was really shaken up. But even, like, with that, he made sure we got our bags back. Quickly, he got his friend to take us straight to our hotel.
He told us multiple times, like, go back to your hotel. I'll bring them to you.
That was weird. Like, when I first pulled out the cat, like, as soon as it happened, I don't know, my first reaction was just turn the camera on. And I realized, like, as I was trying to talk, like, my voice was shaking. It was. I. I guess I had, like, adrenaline or it was just like. It was in, like, a little bit of a daze for, like, the first two minutes.
Yeah.
And it probably took you 10 to snap out of it.
Oh, yeah, it was scary over here.
Not how I expected this video to end. All right.
Anytime it's not on, it's because the seatbelt doesn't work. Get comments.
