My daughter hit someone from behind when they stopped to avoid hitting the car in front of them when they stopped. My daughter was tailgating, but she thought it was OK because “everyone else” was following at the same distance. It is easy to see why young drivers tailgate, weave through traffic, and go 30 MPH or more over the speed limit when so many other drivers do so.
Where I live you rarely see an accident on the main roads that doesn’t involve 3 or more cars. Folks tailgate like they are trying to read over your shoulder.
The “angry peeker” tailgater,creates a lot of animosity,I used to hold back to get enough speed to safely pass other vehicles in my old jalopeys(there was always room to safely stop or abort the maneuver)but,my friends insisted I was wrong,instead they like to get within easy reading distance of the license plates of the vehicles in front,so they can cruise 10-15 mph over the speed limit,the dismaying part about a lot of rural passing is that the passed vehicle invaribly speeds up to match or exceed your speed(if I want to run slow.I pull over and let traffic by,my Wife as a rule wont do that)
I’m off to defensive driver training tomorrow so I’m sure we’ll talk about this. My agent puts it on free so we can get the discount.
OP, I have driven at least 1,000,000 kilometers in my life. Not really exactly sure. But, I am sure I have driven 500,000 kilometers since I retired in 1997. The 2002 car I am driving I bought new, and it alone has 353,000 km on it.
I do not consider myself to be a good driver. In fact, anyone who considers himself to be a good driver usually isn’t. When you start being proud of your excellent driving skills, you start pushing the laws of physics. Guaranteed.
That may sound like a strange thing to say. But, the reason I have few wrecks is because I consider myself to be a poor driver and drive accordingly. I know it is possible that I have a wreck, so I drive to make sure I don’t.
I don’t want you to think I am a driving wimp. Many times I leave my house in the morning, and check into a motel roughly 12 hours later, 700 miles away, averaging 60 mph in spite of stopping every two hours or so for a 15 minute walk to keep our legs from stiffening.
My goal, which should also be your goal, is not just avoid wrecks, but also avoid close calls. Close calls are a statistical predictor or wrecks. Enough close calls, and you are going to have a wreck eventually. What you had in your event was indeed a close call You got away with it this time, but don’t expect to get away with it often.
Something else I do is after every trip, no matter how short, is to mentally review the trip and honestly see if there was anything I did which could have turned sour and caused a wreck.
For quite a few years, I had No-Close-Call trips involving thousands of miles. But, when I started driving in Mexico, I had a lot of close calls the first year. Finally, I learned and now 11 months each year in Mexico, with zero or only 1 or 2 close calls, the latter being totally unacceptable.
The one significant wreck I had in Mexico was some months ago. Coming home from the weekly market, a man fell out of a transport van into the street. I was back far enough I stopped easily. The pickup behind me stopped easily. The taxi behind him stopped easily. The ex-con murderer (seriously) behind him smashed everybody with one mighty blow. I assume the taxi, a Korean car with a distorted H on the front, was totaled. The ex-con ran up aggressively and tried to blame me FOR STOPPING. Hee, hee. He did calm down when he learned I was a friend of his mom and sister…
To have my car repaired as good as new cost me close to two hundred US dollars. I simply could not find anything different I could have done, except what I already did, which was to allow plenty of room so the multiple car wreck (carambola) stopped with me.
Driving is a big responsibility.
Yep, we talked about all that in our defensive driving gathering yesterday. Four hours sitting with mostly elderly discussing avoiding accidents. Every three years so I’m done now for a while.