A dashcam has revealed the shocking moment a woman crashed a rental car while texting behind the wheel.
Instead of keeping her eyes on the road, the driver gripped her phone with both hands, typing away, before veering off course and smashing into a street sign.
As the car jolted off the road, the woman could be heard screaming and slurring her words, desperately trying to regain control.
When the vehicle finally came to a stop, she buried her face in her hands and broke down in anger.
The Rental Owner’s Side of the Story
The car belonged to 18-year-old Jose Arevalo, a part-time trampoline park worker from Arlington, Washington.
He had listed his 2013 Nissan Leaf on the car-sharing app Turo just a week earlier to make some extra cash after losing work hours.
Jose received a text from the woman on August 25, the day she was supposed to return the car.
She claimed she had been “driven off the road” and that the vehicle was already being towed. At first, Jose believed her.
But when he reviewed the dashcam footage, the truth came out.
A Lie Exposed by the Dashcam
The video showed clearly that no one had forced her off the road.
Instead, she had been recklessly texting when she lost control.
Jose said he was stunned by the dishonesty.
“I believed what she texted me,” he explained. “To see her so blatantly texting and then lying about it seemed so strange to me.
Who would lie on a police report?”
It turns out the woman did file a report with the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office and even opened a claim with Turo.
But in both accounts, she left out the fact that she had been texting behind the wheel.
The Cost of a Dangerous Mistake
Jose, who had installed the dashcam six months earlier and always informed renters about it, said he immediately thought about the footage after receiving her message.
The repair bill was later estimated at nearly $5,000—more than the value of buying another used car.
A Wider Problem of Distracted Driving
This case echoes another tragic story out of the UK. Nathan Cole, a 29-year-old van driver from Brighton, admitted he had been scrolling through social media when he plowed into a stationary car on the A27 in West Sussex.
Driving at 72 mph—well above his van’s speed limit—Cole failed to see a broken-down Peugeot on the hard shoulder.
The crash caused life-changing injuries to the driver, who spent time in a coma and had to have a leg amputated.
Dashcam footage later showed Cole repeatedly looking down at his phone in the seconds before impact.
He was jailed for two years and four months and banned from driving for more than four years.
What This Story Highlights
Both cases serve as a stark reminder of how dangerous texting while driving can be.
In one instance, a rental car owner uncovered a renter’s lie thanks to his dashcam.
In another, a distracted driver’s split-second decision to check social media left another person permanently injured.
The common thread? A phone in hand behind the wheel can cost far more than just money—it can cost lives.