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0 pointsWinsaucerer3y ago0 comments

> Have you watched the video? Its freeway speeds, a decently busy freeway, at a tunnel entrench that’s curving. Plus the car switched to the passing lane and abruptly stopped.

The Tesla car switching and abruptly stopping was a big problem, and I can understand that first car having trouble, but for cars behind the first one they should ideally all be keeping a distance ready for suddenly hitting the brakes in an emergency. I find at least in Australia a decent number of drivers do not keep an adequate distance from the car in front for emergency braking.

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amf123y ago

In the police report, out of the 8 cars, only 3 cars were noted to have been driving unsafe for the stopped traffic ahead. The rest of the cars were propelled into the car in front by the car behind them hitting them.

MBCook3y ago

That makes a lot of sense. Doesn’t matter how careful I am if the person behind me only gave themselves 10 feet to react and stop.

onethought3y ago

Somewhat counter intuitively, and to great frustration of the person behind. The safe thing to do when someone is tailgating is to give more space in front of you so that you can brake more softly giving them more time to react.

Or pull over and let them pass, as people often use tailgating to attempt to indicate the car in front is too slow.

Edit: (tailgating = follow too closely)

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macintux3y ago

Even the recommended 2 second following distance is insufficient when the vehicle in front of you comes to an immediate halt and there’s no room to switch lanes.

int_19h3y ago

The recommended distance is not 2 seconds at highway speeds. 2s is a rule of thumb for <35 mph; for 50mph, it's somewhere around 4s.

But, in any case, it is your obligation to leave as much space as it takes for you to stop your car before it hits the car in front, taking in consideration the speed of both vehicles before braking and the condition of the road. The rule of thumb is there for you as a baseline; blindly following it does not automatically mean that you're in the right if an accident results.

Mawr3y ago

The recommended following distance is "Never get closer than the overall stopping distance." [1], so even if the car in front somehow went from 70mph to 0 instantly, you should be able to stop.

[1]: https://assets.highwaysengland.co.uk/stay+safe+stay+back/HE_...

watwut3y ago

That is not possible. I know it is impossible, because I am trying. What will happen when you have that distance is that someone will change lanes to what he perceives as huge space between cars. And they will get very close to you initially.

Dylan168073y ago

Expecting people to follow that far is like expecting people to read every TOS.

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cowl3y ago

its very difficult for cars behind to judge the level of braking. in a Freeway everyone assumes to break enough for a slowdown and not full stop. In Italian Highways there is a very practical custom. the cars that see a full stop not only break but signal full stop to behind cars so they know to fully break an not only slowdown

darkwizard423y ago

That isn't the passing lane as its a bridge (not just a highway) and the left most lane before that area is an exit, so not guaranteed to be the "fast" lane.

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