Fiery 347 Crash Goes Viral on Instagram; Maricopa Faces Major Backlash

When comedian Dustin Ybarra performed his standup routine in Chandler last week, he poked fun at a front-row family from Maricopa, joking, “What, did it take you four hours to get here?”

Ybarra’s jab highlighted a notorious reality for Maricopa residents: frequent car crashes, particularly on State Route 347. Despite what should be a 12-minute drive from Maricopa’s northern city limits to Interstate 10, the commute often stretches longer due to frequent traffic accidents. According to the Arizona Department of Transportation, SR 347 sees an average of one crash every other day.

Recently, one such crash garnered widespread attention on Instagram. The popular Phoenix account @arizonacantdrive, which boasts 77,000 followers, posted a dashcam video of the incident. The clip quickly went viral, amassing thousands of likes, comments, and shares.

The video sparked a heated debate among commenters about who was at fault. The footage showed a black pickup truck merging into a lane, colliding with a driver who sped into the truck. Phoenix attorney James Helm, known on social media as @topdoglaw with 410,000 followers, weighed in, stating, “Both are going to be partially at fault, but a good lawyer would argue the truck is most at fault since he was merging into a lane, cutting the POV off.”

Opinions in the comment section varied. “I agree the truck driver did something stupid, but cammer caused the wreck,” said Orion Carter. In contrast, Marshall Sweet argued, “In the end nobody cares why it wasn’t avoided, all that matters is who is liable for the damages and that would be the truck.”

While the primary debate was about fault, many commenters seized the opportunity to criticize SR 347 and Maricopa drivers in general. Comments like “Ah yes, the 347. No one knows how to drive on that damn route,” from Sam Acedo, and “347, home of the worst drivers in existence,” from Seth Turk, reflected widespread local frustration.

Instagram user @_spacecucumber aptly summarized the sentiment: “Naturally it’s the 347. Worst road with even worse drivers.”