Tailgator sideswipes vehicle to avoid a rear end collision.

[GTA Driver]

https://streamable.com/ls3kn

 

[dash riposki]

'It's not my fault, the vehicle ahead stopped too quickly!'

 

[Nigel]

'It's not my fault, the vehicle ahead stopped too quickly!'

In that case the correct course of action is to drive into the back of the vehicle ahead and make good use of the crumple zones built into the front and back of all vehicles. Not to turn the entire road into a pinball machine where half the impacts are side impacts where the crumple zones are ineffective.

If everyone is paying correct attention and leaving correct spaces between cars, then driving into the back of the vehicle that "stopped too quickly" will not endanger anyone in other lanes or behind you, while creating the pinball machine does!

I still don't understand why the default emergency action in America is to change lanes without checking if it is safe to do so, when the default emergency action in most places is to press the brake pedal, which should always be a safe action if you and everyone else have left sufficient space? The only time you have a problem with that is if the person in front stops using more than just the brakes - ie they drive into something.

 

[dash riposki]

I've trained myself to not do emergency lane changes so thoroughly that hitting myself in the head with a hammer seems like a smarter option than to launch into another lane without a complete evaluation of all traffic.
As a result, I get some pretty entertaining scrambling to watch in my rear view mirrors.
I may get rear ended, but the cameras will prove I was in my lane, and driving safely.
Other than levitating, that's the best I can do.

 

[SawMaster]

I think it's a natural reaction to try to avoid what you see as an impending crash, but it makes no sense if doing that is going to result in another crash which might involve more cars or cause more injury. Braking is often not the best course of action to avoid crashing, but if you are not already aware of the other cars around you and whether or not you can move over sagely, then braking is about the only option you have. It should be sufficient, but in today's dense traffic almost nobody doesn't follow too closely, for to leave the proper space between you and the car ahead almost guarantees that some nut will move into that space. If you then slow to allow for that, it slows the traffic behind you who will now want to go around, and the whole process begins again in another lane which eventually will filter back into your lane in the space ahead of you making everything worse for everyone.

The root cause of most rear-end collisions is that the car behind was watching the car ahead, but wasn't watching further up the road to see the other cars further ahead slowing down which would have given them more warning that they'd need to be braking PDQ. Which goes back to the first lesson we all heard when learning to drive: "watch the car in front of you", which is not what you should be doing. You should be watching everything in front of you including that one car. And you should be as aware as you can of the cars beside and around you enough to know if you can move over safely in an emergency if that is a better choice than braking. All of this has to be done ahead of time and constantly, for there isn't going to be enough time to do it when things begin to go sour. Pilots are taught to not pay attention to what is happening right now, but to already be handling that by having looked and thought ahead because most planes do not react strongly to control input like cars do- it takes time to get on the heading and attitude you want or to adjust your speed. You simply must think ahead and be doing the right thing already or you're going to crash, which in a plane often means you die in that crash. That kind of thinking should be applied to your driving. Everyone's driving. And anyone who cannot or will not do this should not be driving. None of us is perfect, but all of us can do better if we pay adequate attention and try. Unless there is an adequate reward for doing this or a severe penalty for not, then most people aren't going to bother putting this much effort into their driving because there is no reason to.

Phil

 

[kamkar]

I remember one day coming around a slight bend on the motorway only to see both lanes filled with backed up traffic, so i stomped the brake for a while, realized i dident have enough space in the left lane, change to the Right hand lane to brake some more, only to realize there was not enough room there either, so in the end i had to change to the shoulder / EMG lane and come to a stop there.
The following Sunday going back to work my little Opel was shaking like mad when i got above 100 km/h as i had severe flat spotted my tires which i dident notice the day before as the audio was going full tilt.

Not that that stopped me from flooring my Opel down that slight hill on the motorway and do + 200 km/h according to its speedo. but it did cost me a set of new tires.

I was not looking changing lanes, hell i dident even feel the tires locking up, which i never had a problem with before, all i noticed after commming to a stop was the pale faced people in cars passing me stopped on the shoulder.

 

[DT MI]

...Which goes back to the first lesson we all heard when learning to drive: "watch the car in front of you", which is not what you should be doing....

+1. The last thing I was told before getting behind the wheel in traffic the first time was to look through the car in front of you at the car in front of it. It's still something I do to this day and frustrates me to no end to get behind a vehicle where I can't do it.

 

[kamkar]

I have been close to burning my fingers a few times looking too far ahead, i assume you too have tried to be in traffic approaching a intersection, and when its green traffic are stopped and when it is red traffic are moving.
Really weird but i see that often.
Or comming up to a intersection that turn green out ahead and only have a few cars there, and still when you reach i and its still green and cars have barely moved.

 

[Nigel]

I remember one day coming around a slight bend on the motorway only to see both lanes filled with backed up traffic, so i stomped the brake for a while, realized i dident have enough space in the left lane, change to the Right hand lane to brake some more...

That's the right thing to do, the sooner and harder you hit the brakes, the more time you have to make the best decision on what to do next, maybe continue braking, maybe reduce the braking so the person behind doesn't run into you, or maybe change lanes to get out of the way of the person coming up behind. Also, the sooner you brake hard, the sooner the person behind will realise that they need to brake, changing lane at the last second while still at full speed like we keep seeing on USA videos gives the person behind no chance.

 

[dash riposki]

The problem is, the other cars behind you may be trying to use the same escape route.

I drive a large truck 98% of the time, and I sometimes forget I can see more than the cars around me, just because I'm seated 5 feet higher.

They need to be teaching 'if the truck ahead of you is slowing down or braking it's for a reason you probably can't see.'
The usual reaction when I slow down or brake is I see cars doing rapid lane changes behind me without slowing down.

 

[GTA Driver]

I still don't understand why the default emergency action in America is to change lanes without checking if it is safe to do so, when the default emergency action in most places is to press the brake pedal, which should always be a safe action if you and everyone else have left sufficient space? .

I've trained myself to not do emergency lane changes so thoroughly that hitting myself in the head with a hammer seems like a smarter option than to launch into another lane without a complete evaluation of all traffic.

I think it's a natural reaction to try to avoid what you see as an impending crash, but it makes no sense if doing that is going to result in another crash which might involve more cars or cause more injury.

 

[Nigel]

Chain reaction / pinball !

If the black car had braked a little harder instead of changing lanes then no accident.
If the silver car had braked instead of changing lanes then no accident.
If the camera car had braked instead of changing lanes, well the silver car may have been knocked into a bit of a spin, but the camera car driver would have been safe with just a crumpled radiator and the silver car should have been able to control the spin.

Once you change the momentum of your car so that it is no longer heading straight down your lane then regaining control at speed is hard, apparently made much harder by poor suspension on American vehicles that in most of these videos seem to want to spin - they always over steer.

In the UK, another thing that would have prevented this is that it is illegal to overtake in the slow lane, so the camera car would not have needed to brake/change lanes to avoid the accident, and the silver car would not have needed to brake/change lanes to avoid the black car.

If the person/people in the camera car had died, which must have been quite close to happening, who would be responsible? I suspect in the UK the person in the black car could end up in prison for causing death by dangerous driving.

 

[sludgeguts]

I've trained myself to not do emergency lane changes so thoroughly that hitting myself in the head with a hammer seems like a smarter option than to launch into another lane without a complete evaluation of all traffic.
As a result, I get some pretty entertaining scrambling to watch in my rear view mirrors.
I may get rear ended, but the cameras will prove I was in my lane, and driving safely.
Other than levitating, that's the best I can do.

It's how I was taught when learning to drive a bus. The bus has a crumple zone, the car also has a crumple zone, these will effectively reduce your speed even if you don't brake. Slam on & your precious cargo (elderly, kids, etc) carry on at speed until they hit the seat in front. Violently swerve to avoid hitting & your passengers end up on the floor or hitting the side windows. And it's the same with cargo, I've seen palettes of bricks and blocks come apart after heavy braking - despite being well lashed.
I, personally, have witnessed drivers getting carved up by morons who simply cannot stay in lane on bends or roundabouts, the poor sod getting carved swerves to avoid collision & ends up hitting someone/something else - moron drives off laughing or completely unaware.
There's a lot out there who think that because we have cams, we are out to cause a crash but the truth is, we are out to avoid making things 100 times worse. I've been told I have a duty in law / in my insurance policy to avoid crashes wherever possible - yet they cannot point me to the specific webpage where these factoids are written. As we see here, swerve to avoid an idiot & you end up being the idiot - bye bye no claims bonus and low insurance premiums, hello bad driver label.

 

[kamkar]

Venturing out into traffic have always been a calculated risk, but the equation seem to change to the less favorable result every day.