Idiot stops (unreasonably) at lights in front of truck.

[dashy]

He was only 1 second from the light, this kind of thing causes accidents....

 

[dash riposki]

How does this cause an accident? It's daylight. His tail and stop lights appear to be working.
The accident appears to be due to you not paying attention, and following too closely?

 

[dashy]

Accidents to others who follow closely, I was 3 seconds following distance.
If you watch closely you'll see he was literally 7 or 8 tenths of a second from the lights, (don't count how long it took him to stop)
I was only doing 50 in a 60kph zone, he seemed to be doing 50 then 45 then slam brakes unreasonably, always hard to convince people due to fish eye lens I know...
I was told to be mindful of trucks behind me if stopping at lights from when I was taught to drive....

 

[dash riposki]

Not sure how it is in AUS, but in the US, you are basically always at fault if you 'rear end' somebody. (Unless you can prove the other car dropped from the sky and dropped onto the pavement in front of you)

I understand most people don't realize that. You often hear people talk about the other car 'stopping short', and causing the accident.
It's annoying, and dangerous, but we don't have a right to run the jerks over. (dammit)

In the US you get people who intentionally try to get trucks to run into the back of them.
I used to see them often around LA. They'd load up an older car with 4-5 passengers, usually illegal aliens, and watch for a truck not paying attention. They'd get in front of the truck, stand on the brakes, and boom. the passengers all had 'whiplash', filed lawsuits. Before dashcams, the trucker had no way to prove he was set up. Even then, it's hard to prove since most of these accidents could have been avoided if the trucker was paying attention.
(I would notice the occupants of the back seat looking at the truck nervously, and bracing themselves.) Not a good way to make a few hundred dollars, if you get crippled, is it?

 

[dashy]

It is the same law here, the way I drive is impossible to rear end anyone, hehe.
This driver wasn't paying attention behinde him, after stopping I tried to make eye contact with him but he was leaning and doing something for 20 seconds or more, after that I gave up and ignored him. So from that I can assume he was praying for the lights to go red so he can do whatever he had planed to do.
Notice it took 0.0? Of a second for his brake lights to come on after the lights changed from green to Orange.

 

[petepete]

get a can and put a sausage on the Barbie !!!!

 

[dash riposki]

Maybe he was trying to be safe and finish his text message while not moving?

 

[keybaud]

If he had gone through, you'd have jumped a red, as you certainly weren't slowing down for the amber.

 

[Sunny]

That van is okay in my book. He stopped at red light and you had enough room in between.
You have to clear the intersection before it turns red, it's not enough to just enter on already yellow light even though that's what a lot of drivers do as it seems.
You always have to assume the car in front may stop at yellow light.
You should never expect he'll try to beat the light and you can also go through.
Specially, if you have big truck and nothing blocks your view.
Slow down.
One of my friends climbed over the car in front as it stopped guessing it can't cross the light before it turned red at the last moment (bad? yes as it should have decided that little earlier) and my friend was assuming it to go through and was also planning on crossing the intersection.
Guess whose fault was it as per cops and insurance?
My friend's, as the other driver's defense was "I stopped at red light" that was valid.

I was pulled over once for the same reason, a food truck blocked view and I followed but it turned red in the middle.

 

[Gibson99]

apparently, like the 3-seconds-stop thing, this varies by state. in Texas, as long as you ENTER the intersection before it turns red, you're fine. this has been proven at intersections with red light cameras - i see people enter on yellow, just a hair before it turns red, and the cameras don't flash, but they do flash for the next car that follows the one who entered on yellow.

i too have been caught following a big truck or bus too closely... truck/bus entered on yellow but i couldn't see the light, and by the time i COULD see that it was red, i was already in the intersection... usually with another vehicle behind me, also in the intersection! thankfully no tickets for that (knock on wood), just the feeling of "oh crap i just ran a red light!"

 

[Sunny]

@Gibson99, red light cameras are little different.
They don't go off on yellow as it can't distinguish between cars already in intersection on yellow vs cars coming into intersection on yellow.
It only kicks off after the light has turned red but that doesn't mean it proves the law otherwise that mentions, if you see yellow light and it's safe to stop, stop.
If you can't stop safely, for example, you are already so close that you have to slam hard on brakes risking rear end, then you should enter.
That's the reason why red light cameras don't start taking pictures until after it's completely red.

One thing though, if the green arrow turns to green yield light, it's safer in both law as well as risk as you can still pass before other cars that you should be yielding to later on than the one that turns to red arrow.

 

[Gibson99]

i don't disagree that if you CAN stop for a yellow, you should. but if it will take maximum or near max braking to stop before i cross the stop line, i don't stop. of course, always drive to conditions... if it's raining, go slower, yadda yadda...

my wife recently got a ticket from a red light camera ($75 in Tomball, TX). in the letter we got, it had a link to an actual video, plainly showing her running it. obviously algorithms to detect motion and all that are a lot harder to write than a simple snapshot placing the vehicle when it turned red, and a second shot showing it in the intersection, still red.

but just like how we have dashcams, it's hard to argue with video. which is probably why they store it in their systems.

 

[Sunny]

i don't disagree that if you CAN stop for a yellow, you should. but if it will take maximum or near max braking to stop before i cross the stop line, i don't stop. of course, always drive to conditions... if it's raining, go slower, yadda yadda...

my wife recently got a ticket from a red light camera ($75 in Tomball, TX). in the letter we got, it had a link to an actual video, plainly showing her running it. obviously algorithms to detect motion and all that are a lot harder to write than a simple snapshot placing the vehicle when it turned red, and a second shot showing it in the intersection, still red.

but just like how we have dashcams, it's hard to argue with video. which is probably why they store it in their systems.

Hehe, my wife did the same thing in Fort Worth.
They sent the ticket along with video link.
Problem is, she's much safer driver than me, slow to accelerate, signalling a long time, stopping etc... but she's completely opposite when it comes to direction.
It takes a long time to get feel of direction and even then if she has to take a new street as detour, it confuses her.
That's what happened that time.
She had to go to an job interview and some of those streets are little confusing near the downtown so she stopped and asked direction to another driver who was helpful and said to follow him.
She followed him but he went in yellow light and my wife followed him closely fearing she'll loose him and get more confused on the roads but it turned to red light right on the white line.
Anywho, that's why now we have GPS.

For me, once I see some street signs and landmarks, no confusion ever, my brain automatically creates virtual map from any direction to any destination with more than one route already devised with calculations based on traffic lights, distance, speed limits etc...
Maybe that explains why I'm a software engineer while my wife hates anything computer except facebook and youtube.

 

[flank]

my wife recently got a ticket from a red light camera ($75 in Tomball, TX).

$75? I wouldn't even be concerned about them too much and drive normal. Around here in California, they are $500. Needless to say, I very very careful driving around red light areas here.

 

[kuoh]

If you can stop before the stop line, then it is safe regardless of whether you had to apply full braking or not. Some of the yellows are quite short, especially at some red light camera intersections. If the driver following rear ends the car in front, then he was going to run the red light regardless. Consider that the car in front of you can make an emergency stop at any time, not just at a light, to avoid an unexpected obstacle, animal or pedestrian. That is why the safe following distance and full attention is supposed to be maintained at all times. The only exception would be a swoop and squat, where the driver cuts off your safe following distance and purposely forces a collision.

If you can't stop safely, for example, you are already so close that you have to slam hard on brakes risking rear end, then you should enter.

 

[Gibson99]

another exception is when it's been yellow for a while, and the guy in front of you looks like he's not slowing down and will be going thru the intersection, but then he suddenly decides to do a brake stand. true, you won't hit him if you have a proper distance, but if you're expecting him to keep going, you behave differently and perhaps don't brake as hard.

 

[DT MI]

...The only exception would be a swoop and squat, where the driver cuts off your safe following distance and purposely forces a collision.

One of the primary reasons I have a camera.

If I were the victim of that I would not tell the perp I had a cam until after he made his police report. Then, and only then, would I make him and the police aware that I had the video and would strongly 'suggest' to the LEO that he be ticked for not only causing the accident but for filing a false police report as well. My neighbor is a LEO and said that under the circumstances he wouldn't hesitate at all in writing that ticket which can result in jail time in addition to a fine.

In this scenario you would likely win punitive damages in a civil lawsuit if you wanted to go that route to really press the matter home.

 

[kamkar]

The excuse most ppl use when they run a yellow or red light is " if i had stopped the guy behind me would have rear ended me" and ppl even use that when there is no car behind them, and even if its a intersection staked out by police.

Things was simpler in the good old days as the light for pedestrians changed to red some seconds before the light for the cars changed to yellow, when i got my permit i was told to look at the pedestrian light if in doubt about the light changing to yellow soon.

This have now been ruined due to sensore for the cars and buttons for pedestrians to push to enable green light for them, just proof all progress isent good.

In a build up area here ppl generally drive 3-4 X closer than they should, but even on a 80 km/h road you will often have a car 10 M behind you, even if its one of the rare cars that dont overtake you.
Around Aarhus on the O 1 & 2 ring roads ppl will drive 70 km/h during rush hour with 5 M or less between the bumpers, and every morning and afternoon some one will rear end a car.

And even if you leave a 10 M gap ppl will overtake you and then pull in to that little gab forcing you to fall back to make room, which mean on a drive with other traffic you fall further and further behind if you are a nice driver.

If i am 10 M behind a car its cuz i will be overtaking it soon with my little anemic car.

 

[Daleg]

I have to say...after watching the video a few times...trying to give Dashy some wiggle room for his argument of blaming the other driver....I just can't see it or agree with it. The lights are clearly turning and we all know what each color means...given that the speed seems constant up to the last second...I'd surmise one of three things. Dashy assumed the vehicle before him was going thru the intersection without stopping and he would follow thru as well...or...Dashy was not paying attention and not slowing down as he should...or Dashy was conducting a physics experiment that involved trying to insert a larger moving object into a smaller object by use of mass, motion and friction.
Either way....I can't see it being even close to anyone's fault but Dashys
....and it truly sucks to know your at fault but unfortunately someone has to be "that guy" every now and then. You have a duty to follow at a safe distance so that you can safely decelerate in such a manner as to avoid collision with another vehicle. But...nonetheless....you stopped in time and avoided the accident so that's something to be said for that...just don't blame the other driver.

 

[tk000]

You have to clear the intersection before it turns red, it's not enough to just enter on already yellow light even though that's what a lot of drivers do as it seems.

Is this statement in reference to Australia, or everywhere on the planet? Because that's absolutely not how laws regarding traffic lights and intersections are written in Ohio.