The old man is involved in a bad accident with his white van, and his wife has an accident on her way to the hospital. We see her being angry and mean at the accident and with the nurse in the hospital, but our feelings are reversed when we understand the pressure and strain she is under having thought that her husband was dead. Then comes the ultimate reversal -- it is revealed that the old man's van had contained human slaves, and the first thing he asks of his wife is to cash the check that he received as payment for transporting them. Crash shows us that all people are capable of eliciting responses of admiration and disgust. The final scene of the movie shows Ludacris setting the would-be slaves free (another reversal of character), followed by another minor car crash that...

It is not the differences that we must learn to tolerate, but our all-too-human similarities. The characters in this film all deal with family, jealousy, anger, frustration, and powerlessness regardless of race, color, or ethnicity. Some of them handle themselves better than others, and some of them prove themselves incapable of truly handling the strain. Ultimately, these minor failures or inadequacies that are an inherent part of being human are the things that drive us apart -- and that have the power to bring us together.