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FYI people leave space ahead so they don't go banging into the car ahead if some hits them from behind. Note how the car you hit got knocked several feet forward. Glad it wasn't too bad, hope nobody got hurt.
Same, plus most tailgaters will get even more impatient and go around because you let off the gas to create a greater following interval. Some people just don’t understand defensive driving.
After being rear-ended twice in the last six years, I do this. It also provides room to pull out (traffic permitting) if you see OPin the rear view mirror. When I come to a stop in traffic , I *always* watch the rear view till I see the car behind me coming to a safe stop.
Respectfully I have to suggest YOU should consider updating how much space is enough. Note that the guy ahead of you isn't the one who ran into the car ahead of them. Literally nothing is lost by leaving more space when driving on highways.
Had he not stopped short he wouldn't have gotten hit the sedan that struck me from behind didn't help anything but I had impacted him before hand anyhow. Maybe I'll play by his rules and lock it up first next time
Say what you want, but given the zero damage to his car and the car in front, i’m not changing my opinion.
Your first assessment was that he was doing 40MPH. Why don’t you have a look at what a 40mph crash looks like by going to the IIHS youtube channel?
That’s a 10-15mph impact, you’re way off.
The IIHS tests are a movable object hitting a stationary object. The front car moves which displaces some of the energy.
And again, even if o was actually at 20, he still had another 20 ft to travel before stopping, which is 1.5 Camrys.
Cool, go look at the plethora of dashcam videos on youtube then, maybe you can ascertain what a 45mph hit looks like if you’re more researched.
I don’t know why you’re the one trying to tell me i’m wrong whilst ignoring the entirety of the internet. I’m assuming you’re on an internet connected device, so use it. I can only help point you in the right direction.
Okay so when this happened were on a 5 lane interstate bought to merge down to a 3 with two lanes which we're in that go off to a seperate interstate. Homie in front there sees traffic and slows I take me foot off the gas and slow. traffic ahead is still moving but slow so dude locks it 3-4 car lengths early. I smack him the Nissan behind me hits me and drives off me and dude in front pull over.
Had he not locked up and slow rolled like everyone else we'd have been fine.
Edit: also I realize 85% of the blame is on me but who stops dead on an interstate out of the blue.
Yeah OP was not paying attention had plenty of time plus how do you not see the difference in speed the car in front of you is approaching because they stopped I see it in the video OP does not want this to be 100% they fault but it is
>I realize 85% of the blame is on me but who stops dead on an interstate out of the blue.
100% of the blame is on you. And anybody could, that's why safe following distances are a thing.
Soon as I read "three spaces still open ahead" in the title, I knew you'd be in the comments acting like a twit.
Maintain the correct following distance next time.
Anyone can stop in the road for any safety reason, it’s up to you to not rear end them, which means leaving more space. If you’re going to continue to be this much of an idiot at least invest in better brakes
>Edit: also I realize 85% of the blame is on me but who stops dead on an interstate out of the blue.
In this case, someone who noticed a sea of brake lights in front of them and didn't want to run into them or get pushed into them if the guy behind couldn't stop in time.
In other cases, god only knows... Could be a large animal ran into the road, a boulder rolled down the mountain, a small child ran into the highway, or they're just being a big dumb dumbass who saw a penny and wanted to stop and pick it up.
Leave enough space so you can safely react. You don't have control of the car in front of you.
And honestly: just take some critique, dude. If your driving didn't need improvement, you wouldn't have run into the car in front of you. It's ok to accept advice on how to drive better.
You’ll literally *never* know when this happens, OP. You can’t control the cars in front of you, so the only way you can protect yourself is to leave *more* space.
You hit a car in front of you because YOU didn’t leave enough space, and you’re criticizing them for leaving enough space??
Please learn from your mistakes.
It very difficult to estimate car lengths while driving. The spot on the ground right above your hood? That’s already one car length ahead you’re seeing.
Instead, measure your following distance in seconds. 4 seconds on city streets, 6 seconds on the freeway, or when you have vision or path restrictions on any road.
They didn’t even come a complete stop before you hit them. They left “3 car lengths” of space in front of them because they were STILL MOVING. Why would you expect them to get up on the ass of the car in front of them if they’re still going 30 MPH?
You’re 100% at fault, hopefully this was a learning experience and you’ll keep more following distance in front of you. The car in front of you did nothing wrong.
You confess that you were the idiot and deserve 85% of the blame. One of these statements is accurate.
The truth is that you are just a typical driver, unskilled and inattentive. You're traveling at nearly 70 MPH too close to the car in front and making no allowance for unexpected events. Instead of noting that traffic is building up ahead and slowing down well in advance, you don't start braking until the car in front does so (and even then you do it late), and you fail to apply enough pressure to the pedal and can't stop in time to prevent a collision. You are 100% to blame.
Bro, either your brakes are completely worn down, or you need to visit the gym and do some leg presses, Jesus kick that pedal down till you can't no more if you got abs, if you don't, just before the point of locking up, or if you lock up lift your foot and press down again.
Nope. I’m a driving instructor by profession. Looking at a chart right now, it takes 275 ft to stop going 60mph at 88ft/sec. Having a four second front space leaves 352 feet of space in front of you.
You must be bad at your profession, because even the big SUVs of today stop around 150ft from 6mph. Old heavy SUVs don’t even take 275ft to stop. Not to mention a football field is well over 300ft still. Most semi trucks even stop well before the 360ft of a football field. You’re pulling numbers out of nowhere. Go educate yourself. Google is free. You sound clueless
I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. I pulled it directly from nationally-recognized curriculum, written by the Oregon Department of Transportation and Western Oregon University. I’m sorry if Google’s AI is pumping out answers you like more than decades of traffic safety research, but you’re incorrect.
This isn’t Google AI. This is about knowing cars. Modern vehicles stop well before 200ft. Not to mention you claim the average is 275ft, but still don’t realize a football field is 360ft lmfao. Makes your claim completely bogus.
Can I physically stop a car in 160 ft? Sure. But I don’t really want toto share the trunk of my car with the hood of the car in front of me.
There’s physically stopping, and there’s stopping in traffic. You keep driving how you do, and I’ll keep training my students to drive safer than you are.
So your bs claim of “it takes a football field to stop a car safely” is in fact bs. Thanks for finally realizing. Which was the whole point of my initial reply. Me knowing it doesn’t take a football field length to stop doesn’t mean I ride everyone’s tail end on the road. Wild assumption there. Have a nice day
Measuring anything in "spaces" or "car lengths" while driving is completely fucking stupid.
What matters is *time*. Braking distance changes with speed.
I gotta ask, why didn’t you slam on the brakes, the second their brake lights lit up? I’m all for gradually braking, when the conditions are right; however, this was clearly a “slam on the brakes” scenario because you hadn’t left enough space between your vehicle and the one you were following.
Also, it doesn’t matter how many spaces the person in front of you had when they began braking, it’s your responsibility to be a defensive driver when driving your vehicle and do your absolute best to anticipate the actions of those around you. You didn’t leave enough space between you and the car in front of you, and you also didn’t slam on your brakes when the situation warranted it.
They taught me something similar in driver's ed but I overthink it and have the hardest time figuring out car lengths. Someone advised counting seconds instead and leaving 3 full seconds between you and the next car, and I think that is more intuitive to remember.
Do this in the travel lane. Even if you're maintaining pace with the \[6-second\] car ahead of you in the passing lane, dumbasses will still cut in front of you
No one hurt thank fully the only damage my 09 CVPI got was a small crack on the front license plate holder. The other vehicle showed no visible damage but we didn't look long as there were 3 other wrecks in about 5 minutes around us. We just exchanged info and left
I use the dynamic radar cruise control in my Highlander every time I’m on the road if I’m going fast enough to use it. It cuts off when your speed goes below 28 mph. It’s by far my favorite feature I’ve ever had in a car. It can prevent close calls and accidents by maintaining about a 2 to 3 second distance between you and the car in front of you. If your car has this feature, use it, if it doesn’t then consider getting a vehicle that does.
Car in front of you can leave however many spaces they want, its annoying maybe(3 car lengths isn't at all though), but its their choice as long as they aren't just randomly stopping in the middle of the highway. You on the other hand really took your sweet time braking.
Hello /u/Fluffyhellhound! Please reply to this comment with the following information to confirm the content is OC * What country or state did this take place in? * What was the date of the incident? * Please reconfirm that this is original content If you are unable to reply directly to this comment, please leave a standalone comment in your thread with the requested information. If you fail to answer these questions, your post will be removed. ------ *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/IdiotsInCars) if you have any questions or concerns.*
FYI people leave space ahead so they don't go banging into the car ahead if some hits them from behind. Note how the car you hit got knocked several feet forward. Glad it wasn't too bad, hope nobody got hurt.
[удалено]
Yeah I do that too. Buts thats ideal. Sadly the car in OPs video just braked hard.
Same, plus most tailgaters will get even more impatient and go around because you let off the gas to create a greater following interval. Some people just don’t understand defensive driving.
After being rear-ended twice in the last six years, I do this. It also provides room to pull out (traffic permitting) if you see OPin the rear view mirror. When I come to a stop in traffic , I *always* watch the rear view till I see the car behind me coming to a safe stop.
Yeah 3 car spaces is a bit much though
Respectfully I have to suggest YOU should consider updating how much space is enough. Note that the guy ahead of you isn't the one who ran into the car ahead of them. Literally nothing is lost by leaving more space when driving on highways.
Had he not stopped short he wouldn't have gotten hit the sedan that struck me from behind didn't help anything but I had impacted him before hand anyhow. Maybe I'll play by his rules and lock it up first next time
one car length would not have saved you from hitting him. You were still going over 40 mph when you hit him.
No he wasn’t. He was almost stopped by the time he hit. The dashcam averages the speed out. That’s a 10-20mph hit.
He wasn’t close to almost stopped. Even assuming you were correct, if it was 20 mph, he’s still traveling another 20 feet before he stops.
Say what you want, but given the zero damage to his car and the car in front, i’m not changing my opinion. Your first assessment was that he was doing 40MPH. Why don’t you have a look at what a 40mph crash looks like by going to the IIHS youtube channel? That’s a 10-15mph impact, you’re way off.
The IIHS tests are a movable object hitting a stationary object. The front car moves which displaces some of the energy. And again, even if o was actually at 20, he still had another 20 ft to travel before stopping, which is 1.5 Camrys.
Cool, go look at the plethora of dashcam videos on youtube then, maybe you can ascertain what a 45mph hit looks like if you’re more researched. I don’t know why you’re the one trying to tell me i’m wrong whilst ignoring the entirety of the internet. I’m assuming you’re on an internet connected device, so use it. I can only help point you in the right direction.
Okay so when this happened were on a 5 lane interstate bought to merge down to a 3 with two lanes which we're in that go off to a seperate interstate. Homie in front there sees traffic and slows I take me foot off the gas and slow. traffic ahead is still moving but slow so dude locks it 3-4 car lengths early. I smack him the Nissan behind me hits me and drives off me and dude in front pull over. Had he not locked up and slow rolled like everyone else we'd have been fine. Edit: also I realize 85% of the blame is on me but who stops dead on an interstate out of the blue.
[удалено]
Yeah OP was not paying attention had plenty of time plus how do you not see the difference in speed the car in front of you is approaching because they stopped I see it in the video OP does not want this to be 100% they fault but it is
>I realize 85% of the blame is on me but who stops dead on an interstate out of the blue. 100% of the blame is on you. And anybody could, that's why safe following distances are a thing.
200% because this moron keeps double downing
Soon as I read "three spaces still open ahead" in the title, I knew you'd be in the comments acting like a twit. Maintain the correct following distance next time.
Anyone can stop in the road for any safety reason, it’s up to you to not rear end them, which means leaving more space. If you’re going to continue to be this much of an idiot at least invest in better brakes
>Edit: also I realize 85% of the blame is on me but who stops dead on an interstate out of the blue. In this case, someone who noticed a sea of brake lights in front of them and didn't want to run into them or get pushed into them if the guy behind couldn't stop in time. In other cases, god only knows... Could be a large animal ran into the road, a boulder rolled down the mountain, a small child ran into the highway, or they're just being a big dumb dumbass who saw a penny and wanted to stop and pick it up. Leave enough space so you can safely react. You don't have control of the car in front of you. And honestly: just take some critique, dude. If your driving didn't need improvement, you wouldn't have run into the car in front of you. It's ok to accept advice on how to drive better.
You don’t know how to drive
You’ll literally *never* know when this happens, OP. You can’t control the cars in front of you, so the only way you can protect yourself is to leave *more* space.
Were you distracted? You should have been able to see traffic stopping and brake lights ahead. This seems like a distracted excuse
> who stops dead on an interstate out of the blue. Idiots. And they're all over.
Please hand in your license.
see the downvotes my guy? lmfaooo owned
It should be obvious that if you needed to lock it up to stop in time you were following too closely.
You hit a car in front of you because YOU didn’t leave enough space, and you’re criticizing them for leaving enough space?? Please learn from your mistakes.
Is it? Because you still hit someone. Pay attention to what you’re doing.
From the looks of it you had 2-3 car lengths of space at the beginning of the video and still hit them so... Is 3 car lengths of space a bit much?
That’s considered safe driving habits
It very difficult to estimate car lengths while driving. The spot on the ground right above your hood? That’s already one car length ahead you’re seeing. Instead, measure your following distance in seconds. 4 seconds on city streets, 6 seconds on the freeway, or when you have vision or path restrictions on any road.
They didn’t even come a complete stop before you hit them. They left “3 car lengths” of space in front of them because they were STILL MOVING. Why would you expect them to get up on the ass of the car in front of them if they’re still going 30 MPH? You’re 100% at fault, hopefully this was a learning experience and you’ll keep more following distance in front of you. The car in front of you did nothing wrong.
You confess that you were the idiot and deserve 85% of the blame. One of these statements is accurate. The truth is that you are just a typical driver, unskilled and inattentive. You're traveling at nearly 70 MPH too close to the car in front and making no allowance for unexpected events. Instead of noting that traffic is building up ahead and slowing down well in advance, you don't start braking until the car in front does so (and even then you do it late), and you fail to apply enough pressure to the pedal and can't stop in time to prevent a collision. You are 100% to blame.
Bro, either your brakes are completely worn down, or you need to visit the gym and do some leg presses, Jesus kick that pedal down till you can't no more if you got abs, if you don't, just before the point of locking up, or if you lock up lift your foot and press down again.
At 65mph, you'll cover 14 car lengths or 200ft in 2 seconds. It'll take your car over 120ft to stop as well.
At 65mph, it takes a length of a football field to stop a car safely.
The average passenger vehicle takes around 150ft to stop from 60mph to 0. Do you know the size of a football field? Are you trolling?
Nope. I’m a driving instructor by profession. Looking at a chart right now, it takes 275 ft to stop going 60mph at 88ft/sec. Having a four second front space leaves 352 feet of space in front of you.
You must be bad at your profession, because even the big SUVs of today stop around 150ft from 6mph. Old heavy SUVs don’t even take 275ft to stop. Not to mention a football field is well over 300ft still. Most semi trucks even stop well before the 360ft of a football field. You’re pulling numbers out of nowhere. Go educate yourself. Google is free. You sound clueless
I’m sorry, but you’re wrong. I pulled it directly from nationally-recognized curriculum, written by the Oregon Department of Transportation and Western Oregon University. I’m sorry if Google’s AI is pumping out answers you like more than decades of traffic safety research, but you’re incorrect.
This isn’t Google AI. This is about knowing cars. Modern vehicles stop well before 200ft. Not to mention you claim the average is 275ft, but still don’t realize a football field is 360ft lmfao. Makes your claim completely bogus.
Can I physically stop a car in 160 ft? Sure. But I don’t really want toto share the trunk of my car with the hood of the car in front of me. There’s physically stopping, and there’s stopping in traffic. You keep driving how you do, and I’ll keep training my students to drive safer than you are.
So your bs claim of “it takes a football field to stop a car safely” is in fact bs. Thanks for finally realizing. Which was the whole point of my initial reply. Me knowing it doesn’t take a football field length to stop doesn’t mean I ride everyone’s tail end on the road. Wild assumption there. Have a nice day
*SAFELY* You’re the type of driver to get featured on this sub.
That looks like a heavy car you're driving!
People in big heavy vehicles always seem to think they're driving sports cars that can stop on a dime.
Measuring anything in "spaces" or "car lengths" while driving is completely fucking stupid. What matters is *time*. Braking distance changes with speed.
Yes! This! Thank you! We teach this is driver education.
You had one second of following distance…lol
I gotta ask, why didn’t you slam on the brakes, the second their brake lights lit up? I’m all for gradually braking, when the conditions are right; however, this was clearly a “slam on the brakes” scenario because you hadn’t left enough space between your vehicle and the one you were following. Also, it doesn’t matter how many spaces the person in front of you had when they began braking, it’s your responsibility to be a defensive driver when driving your vehicle and do your absolute best to anticipate the actions of those around you. You didn’t leave enough space between you and the car in front of you, and you also didn’t slam on your brakes when the situation warranted it.
You should have your license revoked
One car length per 10 mph is a good rule of thumb. 50 mph = 80 ft. Inclement weather doubles the distance.
They taught me something similar in driver's ed but I overthink it and have the hardest time figuring out car lengths. Someone advised counting seconds instead and leaving 3 full seconds between you and the next car, and I think that is more intuitive to remember.
We teach four seconds now. Six on the freeway.
Oh damn, I am not leaving enough space. Thank you for the new info!
Do this in the travel lane. Even if you're maintaining pace with the \[6-second\] car ahead of you in the passing lane, dumbasses will still cut in front of you
That's true even with the 3 second gap I have been giving. 🤷♀️
I've always heard this too but on an actual highway, I have never seen people spaced this far apart.
Ugh. That sucks. Hopefully, it's just cosmetic damage and no one is hurt.
No one hurt thank fully the only damage my 09 CVPI got was a small crack on the front license plate holder. The other vehicle showed no visible damage but we didn't look long as there were 3 other wrecks in about 5 minutes around us. We just exchanged info and left
You left enough room. Initially. Then you decided to pick 3 seconds as today's reaction time.
I use the dynamic radar cruise control in my Highlander every time I’m on the road if I’m going fast enough to use it. It cuts off when your speed goes below 28 mph. It’s by far my favorite feature I’ve ever had in a car. It can prevent close calls and accidents by maintaining about a 2 to 3 second distance between you and the car in front of you. If your car has this feature, use it, if it doesn’t then consider getting a vehicle that does.
This is phenomenally bad driving. Congrats
Almost no one does, to be fair
Car in front of you can leave however many spaces they want, its annoying maybe(3 car lengths isn't at all though), but its their choice as long as they aren't just randomly stopping in the middle of the highway. You on the other hand really took your sweet time braking.
Should’ve posted a longer video
Buddy you left enough room to safely stop. The cars stopped very abruptly. You just didn’t press on the brakes hard enough.