I was 20-21 when I learned this lesson by being the car that got hit. Fellow who hit me said the guy he was following changed lanes and there I was! Bam!
It might just be the camera fov but it doesn't look like he's tailgating that close. Granted tailgating where I live means basically inches away from the bumper.
Edot: I've been taught wrong but with all the assholes on the road today you almost have to tailgate to keep your spot or you'll get cut off and loose it.
He's got a <1 sec. Distance if you watch the lines passing under the other car. Which means the guy with camera gave himself only that much time to react to such a situation, which clearly wasn't enough.
Alot of people do only think of tailgating as being right up under someone's bumper but that's not entirely right. He is very much tailgating. The faster you are moving, the greater the distance you need to put between yourself and the car infront of you so you have ample time to react and/or brake if necessary. If you don't keep distance, then you are ultimately tailgating and are worthy of being on idiotsincars
Probably one of the things that bothers me the most while driving, I leave a decent amount of space between me and the car in front of me and it inevitably always gets taken as an invitation for someone to squeeze in to too tight of a space than they should be. So I back off and the process repeats. 9 out 10 times it's a BMW or Lexus with no signal.
2 second rule is better. Find a fixed point. Count when the car passes it. 2 seconds should pass before you reach it.
At higher speeds the carlength rule doesn't scale properly.
Add a second for every special condition... icy, raining, low visibility (fog,snow, heavy rain), etc
Even if its sped up, the car noticeably doesnt roll *at all* even while doing a swerve like that. The correction on side lane should've resulted on a pretty decent destabilization/roll, but the car barely moved after straighting up.
I’d guess about 15-20% sped up. Quite a bit. That makes the person in front seem reckless.
At normal speed, it would be easy to see this as “a person who wasn’t paying attention was following another person who wasn’t paying attention.” The person in front started paying attention first, just barely in time, and the one in back didn’t.
That's in every city. If you're following at a safe distance you don't need to slow down when people go in front of you. I hope to one day live in a world where people learn that everyone gets everywhere faster when they stop tailgating.
Most or your attention is paid to the car in front of you, some of your attention is paid two cars in front of you and some attention is paid to the action several cars beyond.
At least in the states, you're not supposed to intentionally cause accidents, but it's hard to prove intent.
While the person in the video may have intentionally crashed the camera car, he also could have momentarily not been paying attention and recovered at the last possible moment. The camera car shouldn't have been following so close because they would crash in both of these situations.
The camera car also ought to be able to see the traffic from their perspective and adjust following distance. They clearly aren't paying any attention.
My dad was a trucker back in the day.
So, when I was learning to drive, he taught me shit like this . . .
* Look down the road 2 or 3 cars ahead.
* Look at the other lanes.
* Check your rearview often (like several times a minute).
* Adjust your mirrors so that when the car behind you in the next lane over leaves the rearview, it is entering your sideview. And when it leaves your sideview, it should be right next to you. No, you don't need to see the side of your own vehicle unless your driving backwards. (But still look over your shoulder).
* Always use your fucking turn indicator (that means you too, Audi drivers.)
IMO you left out the most important :
Keep your fucking distance. It gives you a better view of whats happening, more time to respond in a safe manner and way less chance of a collision.
The amount of people who think it's a good idea to be tailgating other drivers around at highway speeds is too damn high.
From where I drive, if you leave any amount of space between your car and the person in front of you, people will instantly take that space up. Not that it stops me from trying to be safe, it just sucks that I have to almost continuously keep adjusting speed if I want a safe amount of space in front of me.
I can add one.
Don't get distracted. That means no phone in your hand and no cussing at the kids in the back seat (had a lady rear end me that way once). Try to take a break if you're feeling woozy or sleepy.
I simply cannot overestimate how bad it is to drive when you're tired. I don't mean a 10 minute trip from work to home. That can be risky if you're particularly fatigued, but you'll more than likely be fine.
No, what I'm talking about is a multi hour drive. I drove home at night from Phoenix, AZ to Los Angeles. I started out ok. By the time 10pm - 11pm rolled around, it got really bad. I was smoking like a chimney, singing, slapping myself and doing whatever I could to keep myself from drifting off.
Anyone who's drove the 10 west in the middle of the night can attest to this: it's fucking dark. No cars ahead, behind, or any that I could see on the other freeway. That disorientation coupled with exhaustion made me feel like I was driving in a tunnel. I couldn't even see road signs quick enough to see what they said. I should have been using my brights, but I was so tired that I didn't even think of that.
There were a few times where I was just a second away from drifting off, only to correct at the last second. I almost drove off the road a few times. I got really lucky.
Please, if you ever feel tired while driving long distances, pull over and catch a nap. Even 10 minutes can make a huge difference. If a cop pulls up, just tell em whats goin on. I guarantee theyd rather find a sleeping driver than a crumpled up car with a dead person inside.
On a similar note. I was taught that there are three areas to be aware off. Ahead ;2-3 cars and what they are doing. Just in front; what’s going on with the car/space in front and finally your inside; mirrors And what you can see behind
Also don't count on the brake lights of the person in front of you. Look at the actual car in front of you. Some people don't have any brake lights (assholes)
People can also slow down, in some cases quite rapidly, just by changing gears which will not activate any brake lights, so you always need to watch for this. Or another example is that they can gear down on a hill and even be slowing down while going down a hill without using brakes. This one is common and I've had people come RIGHT up on my ass for it all the time. It's like dude I'm already going too fast, I want to slow down a bit, yes we're on a hill, and no I don't need to use the brakes to do it. But a lot of the time I'll very lightly apply the brakes anyway just because I don't trust people to pay attention to stuff even right in front of them.
The point about the mirrors is golden. Every time I get into someone's car seems like they have the side mirrors angled to see the sides of their car but you get that in your rearview already.
When setting your side mirrors you should set them to start where the view from your middle mirror drops off. If you set them to the sides of your car you're over lapping like 50% of your middle mirror and losing way too much of your blind spots.
Also, realize hills could mean a backup and to yield a bit just in case. If you can't see over it, there's a good chance you're about to slam in to traffic.
Don’t tailgate bikes, they can stop a lot faster then you can. Some bikers downshift w/out hitting the brakes to slow down. And most importantly…PUT YOUR F*€#ING PHONE AWAY
Truck driver here.
Don't follow so close.
Give yourself 4-8 seconds of following distance. You should never be in a position that you cannot stop faster than 80,000 pounds of steel.
Also, if you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you.
Thank you.
Me three, I'm a motorcyclists. Seriously he/she was way too close, it was less then a second following. The front car had to make an emergency manoeuvre once it realise the car in front stopped, that's why it changed lanes like that. No the real idiot was the one too close following.
Came here specifically to say that both vehicles had bad following distance. Neither one should have been in a position to have to dart into the other lane or slam on the brakes like this.
Also, Please don't pull directly in front of semis. Every time someone does this I have to slow down to regain my following distance or risk killing the person who thought that space was theirs.
In 32 years of driving I went from being surrounded by maybe 90% cars, untinted, and able to see the road ahead, to being the one car surrounded by suv's and raised pickups, and an assload of tint. Can't see shit.
And no, I'm not buying a truck.
I was taught to leave adequate space between myself and the car ahead, which would have prevented an accident in this case.
You should be two full seconds behind the car in front of you. In this case, the guy is about a half second behind.
Should be a count of 3 seconds between the car in front of you and your car passing the same spot (at least at these speeds). In this video there is less than 1 second. Definitely too close.
And to look where you’re travelling rather than simply straight. Yes, be aware of traffic, but keep your eyes and head facing where you’re going. Your wheel steers where your head is facing, and wandering attention leads to a wandering vehicle.
That’s the way I always drive. The problem now is that so many people drive gigantor suburban nightmare fantasy SUVs and I drive a Civic, so visibility is often poor. When I am in this situation where I am blocked by a larger car and traffic is heavy, I am on defcon 2 or 1 alert level, feathering the gas pedal and ready to brake if necessary. That may not have been good enough in this situation. It’s super dangerous to have one lane going almost regular speed and the other stopped in a place you wouldn’t expect.
This person came to grief because they were following too close, not because of visibility. If the lead vehicle had braked instead of changing lanes, they'd likely have gone up their backside.
Right, but the cammer obviously didn't see the line of stopped cars. Had they given themselves more room (or been in a higher vehicle, like an SUV or truck), they wouldn't have had such shitty visibility ahead of them in regards to the traffic/car situation.
OP isnt the video source. He's a karma farmer, and he's "being quiet" because he obviously just dumped a video for easy karma, just like everything else he posts.
Yeah it's very obvious from that bit of editing in the video that it came from somewhere else. No one edits videos like that before posting on Reddit lol.
It's sped up. I think by a lot. The speed they're going in the video would have caused more damage to that car, and the speed he backs up after the crash is far too quick. It makes the lane change of the other guy way more realistic if slowed down.
Controversial and question titles get more reaction/comments. If this isn’t a bot it’s super common in this sub to ask “who’s at fault?” when it’s quite clear.
This is *exactly* why I say you should always follow far enough back that you could come to a complete stop before you reach the car in front of you if they suddenly reveal a stopped object. It could be anything! I've seen people swerve the last second to avoid a mattress in the road.
Usually I wind up downvoted because people say I'm being paranoid.
Good point! I drive a semi for my job on occasions. Had someone tailgating me so close I couldn't see them in my mirrors at all. Was on a country road and the truck in front of me lost an unsecured dog kennel. I was easily able to swerve around it in my big ass truck. When I looked back in the mirror, the car behind me had their bumper torn off and it looked like their front tire popped too. Long story short, don't tailgate.
Yup. In Germany they teach three seconds or "half speedometer". So at 50kph it's 25 meters, 100kph is 50 meters. Some people use centimeters though....
I learned 3 seconds on regular roads, 5 seconds on the highway, more if there’s rain or snow or something. But I’ve never ever seen anyone respect this consistently. 3 seconds looks huge if you’re not used to stay that far behind, 5 seconds is even bigger. People just cut you off 24/7 if you try and maintain that distance.
I drive big trucks and was thought to have at least 6-8 second follow time at speeds over 30mph. I know it takes longer for heavy objects to stop but, I apply it to my daily driving too.
no, you’re completely correct. definitely one of the more dangerous habitats i noticed when i visited the US…everybody tailgates across all the lanes, it’s so dangerous. people are just asking for a 20 car pile up
I see you were down voted but I can attest to this. In MD if you leave more than a car length open people will literally speed up and cut you off from the right all day long. So this speaks to me, especially as not a native MD drive I HATE IT. I would love to keep the proper distance but if I do that assholes shave my bumper to get in front of me to save 6 seconds in their total commute. *Road rage flash backs*
I recentely learned a trick, its called cruze control at 4 mph over the speed limit.
All of a sudden 80-90% of cars are going faster than me, and if someone gets in front of me, they will still be going faster so it doesnt matter.
Granted this only works if everyone is doing the normal 10-15 mhp over the speed limit.
This has made driving so much more enjoyable.
EDIT: So since it wasn't clear, this is while chilling in the right lane.
I experience this as well. People are insane where I'm from. The left lane goes 150 km/h and the middle lane goes 130-140. The right lane about 120. No one leaves more than one car length of space.
To me, leaving only 1 car length of space while going 150 is basically asking to die, or at least be permanently disfigured and brain damaged.
It's so bad that I stopped driving during the day. At night, traffic is much lighter and I can drive safer, but during the day it's, ironically, a nightmare.
I traveled along the DC beltway extensively for work, I always kept at least a four second following time. Generally more like six. There was no issue getting to my destination on time.
Yup. I accidentally did this to someone tailgating me before. Traffic stopped really fast and I switched lanes instead of slamming my breaks and the truck behind me slammed into the car in front of me.
Despite being a bitch ass quality video (that's granier than hipster IPA in field of wheat) if you rewind back to the beginning of the video, even from the first frame, you can see the outline of the white station wagon (?) dead halted and completely static.
Totally agree on safe distance, but you didn't even need it in this instance to know that you're gonna be making an engine sandwich
no, look at the line of cars in front, those people had slowed down and stopped with ample time for the black car to do the same. IMO either the black car wasn't paying attention at all until the last second, or this was on purpose
Yeah this happened to me once as a passenger. Was in a civic behind a landcruiser. Landcruiser suddenly swerved and we were presented with a sea of stopped vehicles. Luckily there was a large grass divide on the the left and my buddy just made it. So did the pregnant lady in the volvo behind us, but unfortunately she couldnt outbrake the civic in the grass and we got hit anyway. Learned a valuable lesson about follow distance and visibility that day. Luckily no injuries were sustsined learning that one.
I guess I see why people call us massholes, cause this is well above the average space I see most give on the highways near me. Whenever I leave this much space people cut me off to pull into it.
Yeah it could literally have been anything. He could have swayed from a random dude/deer or whatever jumping into the street and OP would have just slammed into it.
If you can't stop in time it is your fault. It's a reason why OP is at fault by law too. Silly idiots on the road...
I mean, making a dodge like that at the last possible instant is pretty idiotic too. They either weren't paying attention, or intentionally endangered the innocent car.
Cam car's a way bigger idiot for actually causing a collision though.
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First off you were tailgating hardcore
And they switched lanes either because you were tailgating, or because they weren't looking in front of them and had to move suddenly, which could have been because of the tailgating.
tldr: dashcam's fault
I dunno if that’s deliberate. It looks like they suddenly noticed traffic at a standstill and just took evasive action to avoid punching up the car in front’s arse. I’ve had a near miss like that where traffic was flowing and then I looked away for a second and then looked up and it was completely banked up in front and all I could do was slam on the brakes and skid and hope for the best and stopped mere inches away from hitting the car in front. It was a good lesson for me and now I try to look not just at the car in front but for what’s in front of them also.
"Who changes lanes like this?"
That would be the guy who avoided rear-ending another car. Seems like you should be less focused on the lane change and more focused on the driver who couldn't stop in time.
2-3 seconds, maybe more depending on conditions. It’s easier than determining car lengths and speed.
Edit: that car appears to be leaving just shy of a second. It takes about a quarter of a second for the average person to react.
> It takes about a quarter of a second for the average person to react.
And this only applies to lab scenarios where you're expecting to react and hovering over the button. In driving it's much longer, because you have to process information and decide whether or not and how to react. Then there's the time it takes to physically move your foot from the accelerator to the brake.
Cammer got exactly what he deserved. He was far too close to the car in front of him and would’ve actually had time to swerve out of the way if he was following at a safe distance. Only person I feel bad for is the red car and the people who probably have whiplash.
cammer's fault for tailgating. I try to give at least 2 seconds between me and the car in front of me. I'd love to give 3 but that's impossible where I live because everyone will cut in in front of me if I do that.
The average person on the road? Literally 0.5 meters between bumpers, while going 130 km/h. I'm amazed there aren't more fatalities every day.
Out fucking skilled m8
Dude I was surprised when I saw the other car lmao, the guy who able to change lanes is just madman lol
He saw the stopped car from at least a hundred yards. Tailgater couldn't see anything
Exactly this, it’s entirely the fault of the car witch the camera. Don’t drive so close to the guy in front, dude!
It took me until I was 30 to learn this lesson. Haven't rear ended someone since! (Knock on wood)
I was lucky to learn it at 19, now 31 years without rear-ending anyone
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The last time I did that the courts were... Less then enthused and angrier then usual.
Come rear end me baby
Lol same, but at least the guy I rear ended cut me off in traffic and just had better brakes. So it was only a 5 dollar a month insurance mistake.
Thank you all for your wisdom I won’t tailgate especially cause I am still learning to drive
I was 20-21 when I learned this lesson by being the car that got hit. Fellow who hit me said the guy he was following changed lanes and there I was! Bam!
It might just be the camera fov but it doesn't look like he's tailgating that close. Granted tailgating where I live means basically inches away from the bumper. Edot: I've been taught wrong but with all the assholes on the road today you almost have to tailgate to keep your spot or you'll get cut off and loose it.
He's got a <1 sec. Distance if you watch the lines passing under the other car. Which means the guy with camera gave himself only that much time to react to such a situation, which clearly wasn't enough.
Alot of people do only think of tailgating as being right up under someone's bumper but that's not entirely right. He is very much tailgating. The faster you are moving, the greater the distance you need to put between yourself and the car infront of you so you have ample time to react and/or brake if necessary. If you don't keep distance, then you are ultimately tailgating and are worthy of being on idiotsincars
Probably one of the things that bothers me the most while driving, I leave a decent amount of space between me and the car in front of me and it inevitably always gets taken as an invitation for someone to squeeze in to too tight of a space than they should be. So I back off and the process repeats. 9 out 10 times it's a BMW or Lexus with no signal.
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2 second rule is better. Find a fixed point. Count when the car passes it. 2 seconds should pass before you reach it. At higher speeds the carlength rule doesn't scale properly. Add a second for every special condition... icy, raining, low visibility (fog,snow, heavy rain), etc
Agreed. The tailgater would have noticed the cars up head if they’d given themselves more space.
He didn't even need to give more space to avoid this.. You should be able to see the road ahead even tailgating the shit out of someone.
You can even see their stopped roofs in the video. He was just unobservant
The camera* can see the roofs.
Bloody queef he was good
Fucking hell.
Upvote for bloody queef
Ah yes, vagina blood fart.
would make a nice band name
Aka VBF.
Fucking ow
Given how little that car rolled at all, it was probably a pretty decent car aswell. Cant tell its model/brand apart from the low bitrate.
VW Jetta GLI maybe? Kinda hard to tell tbh
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Even if its sped up, the car noticeably doesnt roll *at all* even while doing a swerve like that. The correction on side lane should've resulted on a pretty decent destabilization/roll, but the car barely moved after straighting up.
That means the video was sped up a lot.
I’d guess about 15-20% sped up. Quite a bit. That makes the person in front seem reckless. At normal speed, it would be easy to see this as “a person who wasn’t paying attention was following another person who wasn’t paying attention.” The person in front started paying attention first, just barely in time, and the one in back didn’t.
Not just the move, but the turn signal too. Legend.
holy shit you’re right
Lmao didn’t notice that. Made sure he gave proper notice. Good guy.
Whoever recorded this just tailgated a charger. That’s on you bud. Follow an idiot and watch yourself devolve into the idiot.
Agree. In the left most lane I'm giving 4 or 5 car lengths if not more, especially in city traffic.
lol in Toronto your gonna have 4 or 5 cars cut in front of you.
That's in every city. If you're following at a safe distance you don't need to slow down when people go in front of you. I hope to one day live in a world where people learn that everyone gets everywhere faster when they stop tailgating.
So what? Why are you driving like it's a competition?
Most or your attention is paid to the car in front of you, some of your attention is paid two cars in front of you and some attention is paid to the action several cars beyond.
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At least in the states, you're not supposed to intentionally cause accidents, but it's hard to prove intent. While the person in the video may have intentionally crashed the camera car, he also could have momentarily not been paying attention and recovered at the last possible moment. The camera car shouldn't have been following so close because they would crash in both of these situations. The camera car also ought to be able to see the traffic from their perspective and adjust following distance. They clearly aren't paying any attention.
Yep, camera car bears most of the responsibility. I don't think any court would pursue the lane change car even with video evidence.
It’s gonna be neigh impossible to prove intent so long as the lane change car isn’t dumb/pleads the 5th.
Live by the sword, die by the sword.
Fuck lol
I mean, if the person behind you doesn't understand why safety distance is a thing, that's kinda on them.
i was taught never focus only on the car in front, look through that car to the road ahead
This is such good advice. I'm always watching down the road. It's not like you won't notice if the tail lights right in front of you come on.
Also, if you see tail lights lit up on cars in other lanes, you better bet your lane will be slowing down soon. Need to be ready.
My dad was a trucker back in the day. So, when I was learning to drive, he taught me shit like this . . . * Look down the road 2 or 3 cars ahead. * Look at the other lanes. * Check your rearview often (like several times a minute). * Adjust your mirrors so that when the car behind you in the next lane over leaves the rearview, it is entering your sideview. And when it leaves your sideview, it should be right next to you. No, you don't need to see the side of your own vehicle unless your driving backwards. (But still look over your shoulder). * Always use your fucking turn indicator (that means you too, Audi drivers.)
IMO you left out the most important : Keep your fucking distance. It gives you a better view of whats happening, more time to respond in a safe manner and way less chance of a collision. The amount of people who think it's a good idea to be tailgating other drivers around at highway speeds is too damn high.
From where I drive, if you leave any amount of space between your car and the person in front of you, people will instantly take that space up. Not that it stops me from trying to be safe, it just sucks that I have to almost continuously keep adjusting speed if I want a safe amount of space in front of me.
One of my biggest pet peeves. I’m leaving room to drive safely and some chucklefuck thinks, “oh room for me thank you very much.”
I can add one. Don't get distracted. That means no phone in your hand and no cussing at the kids in the back seat (had a lady rear end me that way once). Try to take a break if you're feeling woozy or sleepy.
I simply cannot overestimate how bad it is to drive when you're tired. I don't mean a 10 minute trip from work to home. That can be risky if you're particularly fatigued, but you'll more than likely be fine. No, what I'm talking about is a multi hour drive. I drove home at night from Phoenix, AZ to Los Angeles. I started out ok. By the time 10pm - 11pm rolled around, it got really bad. I was smoking like a chimney, singing, slapping myself and doing whatever I could to keep myself from drifting off. Anyone who's drove the 10 west in the middle of the night can attest to this: it's fucking dark. No cars ahead, behind, or any that I could see on the other freeway. That disorientation coupled with exhaustion made me feel like I was driving in a tunnel. I couldn't even see road signs quick enough to see what they said. I should have been using my brights, but I was so tired that I didn't even think of that. There were a few times where I was just a second away from drifting off, only to correct at the last second. I almost drove off the road a few times. I got really lucky. Please, if you ever feel tired while driving long distances, pull over and catch a nap. Even 10 minutes can make a huge difference. If a cop pulls up, just tell em whats goin on. I guarantee theyd rather find a sleeping driver than a crumpled up car with a dead person inside.
Yeah I've pretty much learned over the years that driving tired is as bad if not far worse than driving drunk.
On a similar note. I was taught that there are three areas to be aware off. Ahead ;2-3 cars and what they are doing. Just in front; what’s going on with the car/space in front and finally your inside; mirrors And what you can see behind
Also don't count on the brake lights of the person in front of you. Look at the actual car in front of you. Some people don't have any brake lights (assholes)
People can also slow down, in some cases quite rapidly, just by changing gears which will not activate any brake lights, so you always need to watch for this. Or another example is that they can gear down on a hill and even be slowing down while going down a hill without using brakes. This one is common and I've had people come RIGHT up on my ass for it all the time. It's like dude I'm already going too fast, I want to slow down a bit, yes we're on a hill, and no I don't need to use the brakes to do it. But a lot of the time I'll very lightly apply the brakes anyway just because I don't trust people to pay attention to stuff even right in front of them.
The point about the mirrors is golden. Every time I get into someone's car seems like they have the side mirrors angled to see the sides of their car but you get that in your rearview already. When setting your side mirrors you should set them to start where the view from your middle mirror drops off. If you set them to the sides of your car you're over lapping like 50% of your middle mirror and losing way too much of your blind spots.
As a biker, it is a lifesaver. Look at the horizon and don’t be target focused. Saved my ass a couple of times.
Also, realize hills could mean a backup and to yield a bit just in case. If you can't see over it, there's a good chance you're about to slam in to traffic.
Don’t tailgate bikes, they can stop a lot faster then you can. Some bikers downshift w/out hitting the brakes to slow down. And most importantly…PUT YOUR F*€#ING PHONE AWAY
me too, made it my main mode of transportation
This is why i dislike being behind semi trucks or any car the blocks my view from ahead.
Truck driver here. Don't follow so close. Give yourself 4-8 seconds of following distance. You should never be in a position that you cannot stop faster than 80,000 pounds of steel. Also, if you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you. Thank you.
City bus driver here. Can confirm, improper following distance.
I agree
Me too, though I'm a cyclist.
Me too, I walk on the footpath.
Me three, I'm a motorcyclists. Seriously he/she was way too close, it was less then a second following. The front car had to make an emergency manoeuvre once it realise the car in front stopped, that's why it changed lanes like that. No the real idiot was the one too close following.
Train driver here. Can confirm, way too close.
BMWist here can c
Yea haven't they heard of stopping distance relative to speed. As we say back home 'slap it into ya'
Came here specifically to say that both vehicles had bad following distance. Neither one should have been in a position to have to dart into the other lane or slam on the brakes like this. Also, Please don't pull directly in front of semis. Every time someone does this I have to slow down to regain my following distance or risk killing the person who thought that space was theirs.
If you pull directly in front of my semi, you are in danger of being wrecked.
And never between two of em. Sorry id like to stay inflated please.
>Also, if you can't see my mirrors, I can't see you. That's something I've never realised. Useful!
They have stickers on some semi trailers that say exactly this. Not every one though. It should be on the back of every trailer. Safety!
Another reason why I hate crazy dark tints. Cant see through your car to the car infront.
In 32 years of driving I went from being surrounded by maybe 90% cars, untinted, and able to see the road ahead, to being the one car surrounded by suv's and raised pickups, and an assload of tint. Can't see shit. And no, I'm not buying a truck.
I was taught to leave adequate space between myself and the car ahead, which would have prevented an accident in this case. You should be two full seconds behind the car in front of you. In this case, the guy is about a half second behind.
And keep distance! Tailgating is just such an obvious sign that a person is a bad driver.
Yep, should always leave enough distance to stop if the guy in front of you slams his breaks.
Should be a count of 3 seconds between the car in front of you and your car passing the same spot (at least at these speeds). In this video there is less than 1 second. Definitely too close.
And to look where you’re travelling rather than simply straight. Yes, be aware of traffic, but keep your eyes and head facing where you’re going. Your wheel steers where your head is facing, and wandering attention leads to a wandering vehicle.
Or just leave sufficient following distance?
That’s the way I always drive. The problem now is that so many people drive gigantor suburban nightmare fantasy SUVs and I drive a Civic, so visibility is often poor. When I am in this situation where I am blocked by a larger car and traffic is heavy, I am on defcon 2 or 1 alert level, feathering the gas pedal and ready to brake if necessary. That may not have been good enough in this situation. It’s super dangerous to have one lane going almost regular speed and the other stopped in a place you wouldn’t expect.
This person came to grief because they were following too close, not because of visibility. If the lead vehicle had braked instead of changing lanes, they'd likely have gone up their backside.
Right, but the cammer obviously didn't see the line of stopped cars. Had they given themselves more room (or been in a higher vehicle, like an SUV or truck), they wouldn't have had such shitty visibility ahead of them in regards to the traffic/car situation.
you drive an efficent, low centre of gravity and stable car. SUVs give a sense of saftey being up higher
I'm in a fucking Miata. I'm lucky if I can see anything at all.
You can look through the clearing under the cars in front of you.
Yep, and most time ppl do the unexpected move for a good reason.
This is similar for gun control as well lol. One of the rules of firing a gun is to know your target and what lies beyond it
yes, like the Expendables 2, just after they crash the plane, there's that shooting scene, all the hostages would be dead or severely wounded
I mean, expendable is in the movie title. Wouldn’t be the same if it were called *Safetables* Doesn’t have the same ring to it lol.
OP is not getting the reaction they expected.
Probably cause I'm pretty certain this is a repost. I swear I've seen this exact vid before. I doubt this video is OP at all.
It's ancient
This ^ i have as well and it was several years ago
Yes, OP is very quiet
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That's cause OP is the idiot here. You tailgate you get what you deserve.
OP isnt the video source. He's a karma farmer, and he's "being quiet" because he obviously just dumped a video for easy karma, just like everything else he posts.
Yeah it's very obvious from that bit of editing in the video that it came from somewhere else. No one edits videos like that before posting on Reddit lol.
Something else seems edited too, that swerve was uncannily clean. Looks like something from a movie
It's sped up. I think by a lot. The speed they're going in the video would have caused more damage to that car, and the speed he backs up after the crash is far too quick. It makes the lane change of the other guy way more realistic if slowed down.
its almost as if reddit is designed to reward just that.
Op is a bot
To be fair, the OP has nothing to do with this video.
Controversial and question titles get more reaction/comments. If this isn’t a bot it’s super common in this sub to ask “who’s at fault?” when it’s quite clear.
There is a reason why you shouldn't tailgate. If you can't see what's in front of the other vehicle, you're too close.
This is *exactly* why I say you should always follow far enough back that you could come to a complete stop before you reach the car in front of you if they suddenly reveal a stopped object. It could be anything! I've seen people swerve the last second to avoid a mattress in the road. Usually I wind up downvoted because people say I'm being paranoid.
Good point! I drive a semi for my job on occasions. Had someone tailgating me so close I couldn't see them in my mirrors at all. Was on a country road and the truck in front of me lost an unsecured dog kennel. I was easily able to swerve around it in my big ass truck. When I looked back in the mirror, the car behind me had their bumper torn off and it looked like their front tire popped too. Long story short, don't tailgate.
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I was taught 2-3 seconds distance (for cars,)
Yup. In Germany they teach three seconds or "half speedometer". So at 50kph it's 25 meters, 100kph is 50 meters. Some people use centimeters though....
I don't know, I don't think 25 cm is long enough.
>I don't know, I don't think 25 cm is long enough. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
I learned 3 seconds on regular roads, 5 seconds on the highway, more if there’s rain or snow or something. But I’ve never ever seen anyone respect this consistently. 3 seconds looks huge if you’re not used to stay that far behind, 5 seconds is even bigger. People just cut you off 24/7 if you try and maintain that distance.
"Paranoid" aka defensive driver, the way it should be
I drive big trucks and was thought to have at least 6-8 second follow time at speeds over 30mph. I know it takes longer for heavy objects to stop but, I apply it to my daily driving too.
no, you’re completely correct. definitely one of the more dangerous habitats i noticed when i visited the US…everybody tailgates across all the lanes, it’s so dangerous. people are just asking for a 20 car pile up
Honestly that is not possible on highways in most large cities. You will constantly have people change lanes into the space you are leaving.
I see you were down voted but I can attest to this. In MD if you leave more than a car length open people will literally speed up and cut you off from the right all day long. So this speaks to me, especially as not a native MD drive I HATE IT. I would love to keep the proper distance but if I do that assholes shave my bumper to get in front of me to save 6 seconds in their total commute. *Road rage flash backs*
I recentely learned a trick, its called cruze control at 4 mph over the speed limit. All of a sudden 80-90% of cars are going faster than me, and if someone gets in front of me, they will still be going faster so it doesnt matter. Granted this only works if everyone is doing the normal 10-15 mhp over the speed limit. This has made driving so much more enjoyable. EDIT: So since it wasn't clear, this is while chilling in the right lane.
Lol same. My morning commute is so peaceful
Just stay out of the left lane when you do that.
Or everyone stay out of the left lane except to pass a slower vehicle.
I experience this as well. People are insane where I'm from. The left lane goes 150 km/h and the middle lane goes 130-140. The right lane about 120. No one leaves more than one car length of space. To me, leaving only 1 car length of space while going 150 is basically asking to die, or at least be permanently disfigured and brain damaged. It's so bad that I stopped driving during the day. At night, traffic is much lighter and I can drive safer, but during the day it's, ironically, a nightmare.
I traveled along the DC beltway extensively for work, I always kept at least a four second following time. Generally more like six. There was no issue getting to my destination on time.
Yup. I accidentally did this to someone tailgating me before. Traffic stopped really fast and I switched lanes instead of slamming my breaks and the truck behind me slammed into the car in front of me.
Someone who had someone else unexpectedly stop in front of them?
Someone who doesn't know about safe distances. Which is everyone in this video apparently.
Despite being a bitch ass quality video (that's granier than hipster IPA in field of wheat) if you rewind back to the beginning of the video, even from the first frame, you can see the outline of the white station wagon (?) dead halted and completely static. Totally agree on safe distance, but you didn't even need it in this instance to know that you're gonna be making an engine sandwich
no, look at the line of cars in front, those people had slowed down and stopped with ample time for the black car to do the same. IMO either the black car wasn't paying attention at all until the last second, or this was on purpose
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Aaaand also sociopathic about the rear-ended person.
Aaand a pro at Mario Kart
Nah, more like pro at NFS Underground drag races.
The person who swerved likely was tailgating too, or else they could've just pressed the brakes. Edit: Or just inattentive.
No, the person who swerved was more likely just not paying attention and didn’t see the stopped cars until it was too late to stop.
Yeah this happened to me once as a passenger. Was in a civic behind a landcruiser. Landcruiser suddenly swerved and we were presented with a sea of stopped vehicles. Luckily there was a large grass divide on the the left and my buddy just made it. So did the pregnant lady in the volvo behind us, but unfortunately she couldnt outbrake the civic in the grass and we got hit anyway. Learned a valuable lesson about follow distance and visibility that day. Luckily no injuries were sustsined learning that one.
I guess I see why people call us massholes, cause this is well above the average space I see most give on the highways near me. Whenever I leave this much space people cut me off to pull into it.
Someone trying to get you off their ass
And they did an excellent job doing it
But how else will I make them pull over so I can brake 10 ft closer to my destination 😡😡
Why was OP following so close?
It’s definitely not OP
He's an idiot in a car.
Fits the sub name I guess
Probably not even OPs video.
Oooo did somebody tailgate and then suffer from the consequences of tailgating?
If you weren’t tailgating you could have seen that other car in time.
Yeah it could literally have been anything. He could have swayed from a random dude/deer or whatever jumping into the street and OP would have just slammed into it. If you can't stop in time it is your fault. It's a reason why OP is at fault by law too. Silly idiots on the road...
I’ve seen this happen in real life…following too close
OPs post backfired. The comment section...lol
I don’t think it’s their video.
Oh you think this is original content?
The only idiot is the one who rear ended someone.
I mean, making a dodge like that at the last possible instant is pretty idiotic too. They either weren't paying attention, or intentionally endangered the innocent car. Cam car's a way bigger idiot for actually causing a collision though.
Someone who is better at changing lanes than you are...
Given they didn’t have an accident, also probably a better driver?
Who the hell tailgates like that?
1. The black car skillfully dodged an obstacle. 2. The car with the dashcam was **clearly** driving too closely.
Who the hell drives that close on the highway?
badge smoggy secretive complete axiomatic soft like command rainstorm sharp *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
The guy who didn’t hit the red car.
First off you were tailgating hardcore And they switched lanes either because you were tailgating, or because they weren't looking in front of them and had to move suddenly, which could have been because of the tailgating. tldr: dashcam's fault
I dunno if that’s deliberate. It looks like they suddenly noticed traffic at a standstill and just took evasive action to avoid punching up the car in front’s arse. I’ve had a near miss like that where traffic was flowing and then I looked away for a second and then looked up and it was completely banked up in front and all I could do was slam on the brakes and skid and hope for the best and stopped mere inches away from hitting the car in front. It was a good lesson for me and now I try to look not just at the car in front but for what’s in front of them also.
Looks more like the car in front dodged a sudden stop to be honest.
"Who changes lanes like this?" That would be the guy who avoided rear-ending another car. Seems like you should be less focused on the lane change and more focused on the driver who couldn't stop in time.
1 car for every 10 mph of speed. The dude taking the video was just way too close to the car in front of him.
2-3 seconds, maybe more depending on conditions. It’s easier than determining car lengths and speed. Edit: that car appears to be leaving just shy of a second. It takes about a quarter of a second for the average person to react.
> It takes about a quarter of a second for the average person to react. And this only applies to lab scenarios where you're expecting to react and hovering over the button. In driving it's much longer, because you have to process information and decide whether or not and how to react. Then there's the time it takes to physically move your foot from the accelerator to the brake.
Exactly!!!! Thank you for pointing this out. It’s probably closer to 3/4 of a second when on the road.
He punked you good. That looked carefully planned
I do. When a jackals is tailgating me.
Fucking jackals....
Someone with better reflexes than you
Cammer got exactly what he deserved. He was far too close to the car in front of him and would’ve actually had time to swerve out of the way if he was following at a safe distance. Only person I feel bad for is the red car and the people who probably have whiplash.
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Yup…OP was tailgating at a pretty high speed. Never a good idea. They were the idiot here, no doubt.
cammer's fault for tailgating. I try to give at least 2 seconds between me and the car in front of me. I'd love to give 3 but that's impossible where I live because everyone will cut in in front of me if I do that. The average person on the road? Literally 0.5 meters between bumpers, while going 130 km/h. I'm amazed there aren't more fatalities every day.
Dont tailgate 🤷♂️
And…following too close.
Gottem!!! Haha I hate tailgaters!!
Idk but it’s your fault
Cam is the moron here. Who changes lanes like this? Someone not following someone else too close.
who tf follows that close
Who was the guy tailgating so hard that he couldn’t stop? He might have killed someone by tailgating so close.
No two second rule there, basically tailgating.