History Main / SurpriseCarCrash

** In the manga, she died when a little girl chasing her ball appeared in front of the car and the driver tried to avoid running over her. In the anime this was changed to two vehicles heading towards it, with the implication that despite the driver trying to swerve away, they still crashed, with Lynn being the sole survivor of the accident.

[[caption-width-right:300:Nothing says wham like [[JustForPun a wham episode!]]]]

** An overworked Kim falls asleep at the wheel, drifts across two lanes, and slams into a guardrail. The accident is seen entirely from her perspective, [[SmashCut cutting directly from her driving to her waking up to an airbag in her face]].

* ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'' uses this as part of its AntiClimax ending. After Anton Chigurh kills his targets, he sets off for Mexico to track down the stolen money--before he can leave the neighborhood, another car comes out of nowhere and hits him, breaking his arm.
* Done in the beginning of ''Film/Constantine2005'' to show the strength of the supernatural threat. When the man it's [[DemonicPossession possessing]] is suddenly hit by a truck, the vehicle is left with a huge dent in its grille and a mangled driver while he [[PedestrianCrushesCar just keeps walking]].
* In ''Film/EnterTheVoid'', we see a flashback to the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jc-vtVFJWo8 sudden and fatal car crash]] that made the protagonist and his sister ConvenientlyAnOrphan, when the family car is hit by a truck in a car tunnel. It's made even more jarring because the entire segment leading up to this was a whimsical family memory, with sweet lullaby music right up until the truck comes barreling out of nowhere.

* In ''Film/GrudgeMatch'', Razor is out on a date with his former girlfriend; as they're driving along he gets slammed into. Nobody is seriously hurt, but it reveals that he's blind in his left eye.
* The theatrical trailer for the movie ''Film/{{Focus}}'' begins with a man in a car putting on a helmet. It's quiet for a beat or two while he drives until he crashes headfirst into the main characters.
* Detective Sophie Neveu from ''Film/TheDaVinciCode'' became an orphan in a head-on collision. In a childhood memory flashback, Sophie remembers being in the back seat of a sedan, with both parents [[HollywoodDriving turned to dote upon her]]; they never saw the tractor trailer that came looming into the windshield.

* In ''Film/{{Haywire}}'', Mallory escapes from the trap at the beginning of the film in a car, but a deer suddenly strays across her path causing her to swerve and hit a tree.
* Andrew Neiman, the main character of ''Film/{{Whiplash}}'', gets into this type of crash on the way to a jazz concert to end a {{Trauma Conga Line}} that starts with a bus breakdown and continues with a pair of forgotten drumsticks.
* The car accident in ''Film/TheBody2012'' that kills Jaime's wife comes unexpectedly.

* Creator/BusterKeaton does this in ''Film/SevenChances'' for comedic effect, as seen [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrT1FnuUOWo here]].
* ''Film/{{Disturbia}}'': The car crash that kills Kale's dad happens without warning after another car pulls up in front of them and changes lanes seconds before they hit a different, broken-down car parked right in front of them.

* ''Film/{{Clockwise}}'': Having berated Laura for driving without a licence, Brian Stimpson takes the wheel himself; he immediately crashes into a police car which had reversed to just in front of where they were parked. In a case of ObscuredSpecialEffects, the crash is heard before the result is seen.

* ''Film/TheBody2012'': The car accident that kills Jaime's wife comes unexpectedly.
* Downplayed in ''Film/NoTimeToDie'' as it happens in the middle of a car chase, but Madeleine Swann is earnestly trying to convince James Bond she didn't set him up to be ambushed by the SPECTRE goons who are trying to kill him when a car suddenly rams them from the side, bringing the chase to an abrupt halt.
-->'''Madeleine:''' James! James, listen to me! I would rather die than you think I'm--''(screams as car slams into them)''
* Part of the backstory of Baby in ''Film/BabyDriver'', who was in the backseat while his parents were arguing at front. The crash kills both of them and deafens Baby, partly explaining his child-like attachment to both classic iPods and driving.

* ''Series/{{Fargo}}'': Starts the series off in season one episode one when Malvo crashes his car into a bounding deer. Season two episode one also features this when Peggy crashes into a wounded Rye.
* ''Franchise/LawAndOrder'':
** ''Series/LawAndOrder'': The season 6 finale concludes with Claire driving an inebriated Lenny home from a bar and them getting t-boned out of nowhere by another drunk driver. [[spoiler: She doesn't survive.]]
** ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit'': Olivia is in an accident with Stabler's pregnant wife Kathy after a drunk driver hits them. Benson is able to get out of the car and assist the firefighters with freeing/stabilizing her, but the trauma [[spoiler: causes Kathy to go into premature labor. Both she and the baby boy she delivers survive.]]
* At the end of the episode "Lady Parts" in ''Series/Lucifer2016'', an SUV crashes into Detective Decker's Crown Victoria after she had ended a call regarding a move to a new apartment.
* ''Series/BetterCallSaul''
** In the pilot, Jimmy is on the phone while driving. When he takes a turn, there is a JumpScare of something [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ixW6UUzsCFA crashing into his windshield]]. Turns out it was a skater trying to pull a StagedPedestrianAccident on him.
** An overworked Kim falls asleep at the wheel, drifts across two lanes, and slams into a guardrail. The accident is seen entirely from her perspective, [[SmashCut cutting directly from her driving to her waking up to an airbag in her face]].
* ''Series/{{Glee}}'' episode "[[Recap/GleeS3E14OnMyWay On My Way]]" ends with Quinn, [[{{Anvilicious}} while texting Rachel]] to say that she's on her way to the latter's wedding, quite suddenly getting T-boned by a truck, and immediately cutting to black. She spends a few episodes in a wheelchair and then gets better.
* In the cliffhanger of ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'s'' [[spoiler:first season finale]] episode, a semi-truck from out of nowhere slams into the side of the main characters' Impala and knocking them off the road.

* Near the end of the episode "Blame it on Leo" in ''Series/{{Zoo}}'', the car Jamie rides with Leo Butler gets smashed up when Evan crashes the pickup on the side to secure a sample of the mother cell the latter kept hidden from Reiden Global.
* The Showtime series ''Series/ShamelessUS'' plays with this in season 3 (episode 9). Karen, Lip's on-again, off-again girlfriend, pisses off Mandy Milkovich, Lip's other interest. After a heated conversation, Karen walks home alone, and as she crosses the street a car veers very close to her and she has to leap out of the way. As it speeds off, she flips it the finger -- only to be hit by another car coming from the other direction, driven by Mandy.

* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': Jessica loses her father and brother when the family car crashes into a truck carrying a container of chemicals because Phillip is too distracted by his children arguing. Jessica and her mother end up in the hands of Dr. Karl Malus, who ends up giving them superpowers in the course of treating their injuries.

* This was how the protagonist became a ''Series/BionicWoman'' in the 2007 reboot. The trope is used again showing her EvilCounterpart Sarah Corvus in flashback to the car crash that killed her sister. Corvus recreated the accident with Jaime Sommers for reasons that aren't revealed as the series was CutShort.
* One episode of ''Series/WithoutATrace'' had Agent Fitzgerald and a LoveInterest of his have a cute little ShipTease moment when a car runs a red light right into them.
* ''Series/InPlainSight'' had [[spoiler:Marshal]] get into one of these during their final season. Surprisingly he came out mostly unscathed.

* Happens towards the second season of ''Series/{{Arrow}}'' when a car crashes into [[spoiler:Oliver and his mother. However, it's no accident; BigBad Slade Wilson deliberately crashed into them as part of his plan for revenge.]]
* ''Series/{{CSINY}}'': In "[[Recap/CSINYS07E21 Life Sentence]]," a guy Mac and his first partner, Bill Hunt, put away 17 years earlier is out of jail and out for revenge. He t-bones Mac's vehicle as he and Hunt are headed to the precinct. [[spoiler: Mac escapes with cuts and scrapes, but Hunt dies from internal injuries at the scene.]]

* The opening cinematic of ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}'' has protagonist Daniel Garner and his wife Catherine driving out for a birthday dinner. Daniel takes his eyes off the road for a split-second to hold hands with her and a truck crosses the center line and kills both of them in a head-on collision.

* The opening cinematic of ''VideoGame/{{Painkiller}}'' has protagonist Daniel Garner and his wife Catherine driving out for a birthday date. Daniel takes his eyes off the road for a split-second to hold hands with her and a truck crosses the center line and kills both of them in a head-on collision.

* This happens on an episode of ''Series/LawAndOrderSpecialVictimsUnit''. Olivia is in an accident with Stabler's pregnant wife Kathy after a drunk driver hits them. Benson is able to get out of the car and assist the firefighters with freeing/stabilizing her, but the trauma [[spoiler: causes Kathy to go into premature labor. Both she and the baby boy she delivers survive.]]

In a moving vehicle, a standard [[WalkAndTalk drive-and-talk]] scene plays out, usually an EnRouteSumUp or similarly mundane ShotReverseShot conversation as generic scenery passes in the background, until [[MoodWhiplash WHAM!]] - the scene is violently interrupted by another car crashing into our unsuspecting characters, appearing suddenly in the heretofore innocuous view through the windows.

* During the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{The Last Of Us}}'', Joel, his daughter, and his brother are driving through a panicked city in the midst of an infected outbreak. Suddenly and without warning, a car crashes into the side of their car, knocking the car on its head. Forcing them to further face the apocalypse.

* ''VideoGame/{{Soma}}'' starts with one. A man and a woman are in a car, talking about a medical appointment that the man will have, then SLAM! Then he wakes up. It was a dream conflating a real crash (in which the woman died) and a forthcoming appointment for a brain scan.
* ''VideoGame/TheWalkingDead'' opens with Lee Everett in the back of a police car, which suddenly runs off the road when the officer driving it accidentally hits a zombie. The player is given a split second to try to warn the officer to look out, but the result is always the same.

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* Done in the beginning of ''Film/{{Constantine}}'' to show the strength of the supernatural threat. When the man it's [[DemonicPossession possessing]] is suddenly hit by a truck, the vehicle is left with a huge dent in its grille and a mangled driver while he [[PedestrianCrushesCar just keeps walking]].

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* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gtio4V1L3o One advertisement by Volkswagen]] played prior to a movie simulates a person driving. Behind the scenes, someone who works for the ad campaign sends a text to the moviegoers via a computer. As they read the messages on their cell phones, the car crashes, followed by a reminder to keep the eyes on the road when driving.
* Two commercials for Volkswagen showed the occupants of the car talking about something. In one, we see a car come out of a side street and hit the side of the Volkswagen. In the other, we see the view through the windshield as a truck backs out of driveway into their path. After the impact in both commercials, we see the occupants seemingly uninjured looking over the smashed up cars.

* The Canadian [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvg-R7ha824 Don't Drive High]] PSA features this as a consequence to a driver who smoked before driving. Even more disturbing, in the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b--K9DVsObk Eye-Opener]] version of the commercial it shows [[spoiler: a POV of the driver being rushed to the hospital. Then we get a view of the driver looking at a woman (Who was using a phone) ending up dying in the hospital.]]

* At the end of the episode "Lady Parts" in ''Series/Lucifer2016'', a SUV crashes into Detective Decker's Crown Victoria after she had ended a call regarding a move to a new apartment.

** An overworked Kim falls asleep at the wheel, drifts across two lanes and slams into a guardrail. The accident is seen entirely from her perspective, [[SmashCut cutting directly from her driving to her waking up to an airbag in her face]].
* ''Series/{{Glee}}'' episode "[[Recap/GleeS3E14OnMyWay On My Way]]" ends with Quinn, [[{{Anvilicious}} while texting Rachel]] to say that she's on her way to the latter's wedding, quite suddenly getting T-boned by a truck, and immediately cutting to black. She spends a few episodes in a wheelchair, and then gets better.

* ''Series/JessicaJones2015'': Jessica loses her father and brother when the family car crashes into a truck carrying a container of chemicals, because Phillip is too distracted by his children arguing. Jessica and her mother end up in the hands of Dr. Karl Malus, who ends up giving them superpowers in the course of treating their injuries.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Karen ends up killing her brother Kevin. While driving him home on a dark windy road, after having rescued him from her drug dealing boyfriend Todd, she's distracted by arguing with him to the point that she doesn't notice she's drifting out of the lane...until the car abruptly hits a bridge guardrail, and is flipped over several times before landing on its roof. Kevin is killed on impact, while Karen survives with a few cuts and bruises.

* During the beginning of ''VideoGame/{{The Last Of Us}}'', Joel, his daughter and his brother are driving through a panicked city in the midst of an infected outbreak. Suddenly and without warning, a car crashes into the side of their car, knocking the car on its head. Forcing them to further face the apocalypse.

* In ''Film/GrudgeMatch'' Razor is out on a date with his former girlfriend; as they're driving along he gets slammed into. Nobody is seriously hurt, but it reveals that he's blind in his left eye.

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[[folder: Video Games ]]

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* Fargo: Starts the series off in season one episode one when Malvo crashes his car into a bounding deer. Season two episode one also features this when Peggy crashes into a wounded Rye.