SUVs are extremely popular in India and around the world. Customers often choose them for their increased ground clearance and road presence. Due to their increasing popularity, car manufacturers are also focusing on this segment. One SUV that has been ruling its segment is the Toyota Fortuner. This SUV has been present in the market for over a decade, and its popularity doesn’t seem to go down despite having an expensive price tag. The Fortuner is a capable SUV, but that doesn’t mean it is invincible. Here we have a video where a Toyota Fortuner learned this the hard way. The driver attempted to maneuver the SUV over a median strip to avoid a traffic jam and got royally stuck on it.
The video has been shared by CarInfo Tamil on their YouTube channel and was recorded somewhere in India. The owner of the Toyota Fortuner was stuck in a traffic jam due to waterlogging. Frustrated with the road’s traffic, the SUV driver attempted to drive over the median, possibly assuming that his SUV had ample ground clearance to cross it.
The video was recorded by a person driving behind the Fortuner. By the time the recording started, the SUV was already stuck on the median. The Toyota Fortuner driver managed to drive the front wheels over the median and reach the other side; however, the car got beached on the median, and the rear wheels could not move any further. In fact, the median strip was not wide enough to allow the rear wheels to climb up before hitting the bottom. We can see the Sigma 4 badge, indicating that this is the 4×4 version of the Fortuner. Even after engaging 4×4, the SUV was unable to move forward or clear the obstacle.
The SUV owner is now stuck in the middle of the road as the vehicle cannot move either forward or in reverse. As seen in the video, the SUV’s footboard is resting on the median. The driver attempts to drive the SUV in reverse; however, as the vehicle is stuck on a road with slow-moving traffic, it is making things even more challenging. Eventually, the driver gets out of the SUV and can be seen asking other car drivers to wait for a few seconds so that he can bring his SUV back on the road.
The video is a good example that proves that 4×4 vehicles are not invincible, and one has to be extremely careful about the surroundings even when driving an off-roader. If the driver had carried a bit more momentum, there might have been a chance of clearing the median. The SUV is actually stuck in a very bad situation. If the owner wants to recover it, he’ll probably have to use a jack to lift the rear wheels, then place a rock under the tires to free up the footboard resting on the median. Once that is done, he can slowly drive the car forward or reverse. SUVs do have good clearance, but that doesn’t mean you have the right to drive over a median in such situations. The driver not only created a problem for himself but also slowed down other people and wasted their time.