How aggressive drivers cause collisions

General Discussion
41

Yes, and I would like to add that correctly adjusting your outside mirrors reduces the blind spot to almost zero, something few drivers do. And yes, I drive usually 5 MPH over the limit and drive very defensively.

Re the mirrors, they should be moved outwards so there is little overlap between the inside mirror and the outside ones. Watch a car passing you on your left, it’s image should move from the center mirror to the outside one with little overlap. Setup this way, you can see a car passing until is it almost parallel with you, at which point you can see it directly via your peripheral vision. Ditto with the right.

b

42

^
Yup!
By adjusting your outside mirrors as you described, by frequently checking them and the rear view mirror, and by swiveling your head before you change lanes, you can make yourself aware of virtually all traffic to the rear and to the sides.

43

The one time I almost had an accident was when a car was passing me on the right hauling an empty boat trailer. The whole thing was nowhere more that two feet off the ground, so not visible to me, except for the very front of the trailer where a vertical support alerted me. Or perhaps I saw something in the right outside mirror.

This is a case where using the mirrors is better than swiveling your head, you get a wider field of view.

b

44

As the Camaro tried to pull into the almost nonexistent space between the 18-wheeler and the pickup, the pickup accelerated to make sure the Camaro would not fit in.

45

I tend to put much more than 0% on the pickup driver. He reminds me of my smart-alecky brother. When he is driving, he imagines he is a cop and a judge and anyone who offends his Royal Majesty MUST BE PUNISHED.

Yeah, the drunk should be keel-hauled. (Does anyone know what keel-hauled was, in the British Navy? It was second in severity of punishment to hanging though it was possible to survive keel hauling.)

But, the pickup driver was the last person who could have caused that wreck not to occur. at least not at that time nor place, If he had simply moved out of the road, odds of any wreck would have dropped considerably.

If you folks really drive defensively, you should be aware that someone driving crazy, probably is. Let him go. He may be nuts; he may be drunk; or he may be armed and dangerous. It is not your job to punish him. Call 911 and let him go.

I was on the factory safety committee for years. Part of my study materials pointed out that when a major disaster happens, there is ALWAYS more than one fault. First, a dangerous condition occurs. Then, other things of slightly lesser danger happen which all add up to a major disaster.

Even with the dangerous condition, if any of the other things is eliminated, chances for a disaster go way down.

Several historical examples involve dance halls.They put up flammable decorations all over the place. a very dangerous condition. Then, stupid management sees people sneaking in the side doors and chains and padlocks them. And, 50 or 250 people burn to death.

In this case, the drunk was the basic dangerous condition. Then, the smart alecky road rage pickup driver turned it into a disaster that could have got people killed.

46

OK passed a statute a few years ago requiring cars to keep left unless passing and it’s never enforced as far as I know. I have yet to see a cop give someone a second look even if that person is doing 55 in a 70 while in the inside lane.

The pickup looked to be a commercial rig so I wonder if the driver of that pickup was an employee of a company?
If so, the owner of that company should have given strong consideration to terminating the guy.

47

The pickup driver chose the wrong time to play “keeper of the speed” in the left lane. Driving is not the right forum for proving a point to bad drivers. Best to get out of their way and let them crash into someone else, let the police catch them, or just let them get as far away from you as possible.

Fun memory: the time we were stuck in traffic, at a complete standstill just crawling forward, on the interstate and a smarty-pants driver pulled into the right shoulder to pass other cars. He ultimately tried to merge back into the roadway and as he was trying to wedge his way in a car pulled up in the shoulder behind him - it was a sheriff with lights on, pulling him over to ticket him. Felt so good to see a cop there to dole out some very timely justice!

48

@BillRussell:


Yeah, you lose a blind spot…but good luck backing up to a loading dock, or keeping an eye on how your trailer tracks along a narrow road, or a bunch of other stuff.


I back my truck into a car park daily, with a white picket fence that I MUST clear by 1-8" to be properly spaced once I finish the backing left turn. The only means of reliably doing that is to use the driver’s side mirror for lateral spacing, body to fence.


If somebody has mobility issues, fine…but it’s a bit much to say there is ONE CORRECT way of setting mirrors! IMHO, set the mirrors the old-fashioned way, and keep your head on a swivel (you’re supposed to do that anyways…)

49

The accident took place in NY (near Batavia). NY traffic law requires that, when you are being passed, you do NOT speed up until the vehicle passing has safely returned to the lane in front of you. NY traffic law contains no references to drunk drivers trying to pass you on the left shoulder after tailgating you for miles.

In all seriousness, the pick-up driver should have simply allowed the drunk to get in front of him to begin with and let him drive away. If he knew the driver was drunk he could have called 911 and had the State Troopers catch him before he caused a wreck (hopefully).

50

@bloody_knuckles Exactly right. Such erratic behavior on the part of the Camaro should be dealt with by avoidance. We can’t even deal with a drunk well in person, let alone one driving a car. A police officer is protected somewhat from liability in the performance of his job in trying to apprehend these characters…by vertue of their training and licensing. Civilians are not. Some people think because they have a bigger gun( truck in this case) it gives them the right to put innocents in jeopardy by playing Dirty Harry. Most prudent drivers think we have a responsibility to avoid accidents regardless of who is a fault.

The biggest problems arise when a tractor trailer rig is made part of the game by the truck driver. The truck driver is using the rig and putting everyone behind at risk just to what, prove a point ? How is he ever going to apprehend or change the mind of a drunk or deranged driver while on the highway by this act ? All he can do is contribute to a bad situation and make it worse which is exactly what he did. Imagine the chaos if there was no field to the right but buildings and a guide rail. Even the guy with the camera could now be involved.

51

@meanjoe75fan Most cars have power mirrors or should. It’s now considered a safety feature as many cars and trucks come with mirrors that are too small to be used for both highway travel and backing up. If you make a living backing up, you set your vehical up to both see blind spots and and back up clearance. It depends upon the vehicle and a loaded pick up truck can have a huge blind spot. It’s not an either/or situation. Seeing blind spots with a mirror and turning your head are all in play as is using your power mirrors while driving or having the best ones there to do the job.

52
OK passed a statute a few years ago requiring cars to keep left unless passing...

Uh, keep right?

53

When I watched the video there appeared to be someone in front of the PU, from the shadows it appears that the PU was about 30 feet away from the car (or truck) in front of him. The Camero tries to cut in and it appears that his bumper wouldn’t clear the PU. The PU accelerate, the PU catches up to the second semi and at this point the PU drive is matching the Semi’s speed. Ok that was a jerk move, the Camero decided to make an illegal pass by driving on the shoulder. So who’s to blame the Camero is 100% to blame.

“the fact remains that if a trooper had seen the pickup hogging the left lane prior to the collision, the pickup driver would have been eligible for a traffic ticket.”

He had already passed one Semi, and was slowly passing the other, he could have had his cruse control on and was maintaining a constant speed and the semi was speeding up slightly, which is what I would claim in court. I was passing but the semi was speeding up and the Camaro was so close that I couldn’t slow down to get behind the semi and it’s illegal to break to speed limit to pass someone, so all I could do was maintain my speed. Also the PU, Camaro, and the driver with the video camera was all too close to be safe and all three could have gotten a ticket.

54

If you look at the very beginning of the video, the PU driver is in the left lane tooling along while the right lane is empty. The two semis are up ahead quite a ways. So the PU had been hogging the left lane well before passing the semis. Also at some point in the beginning, there was a car ahead of the pick up while passing the semi. The video seems to be incomplete for some reason since at no point can you tell what happened to that car? Since you don’t ever see the car move over to the right lane, it can only be assumed that the car continued on in the left lane but put quite a distance between it and the PU by the time the PU was passing the second semi.

So to me anyway, the PU driver seemed to think he/she was privileged and deserved to be in the left lane and everyone else be danged. Then he decided to enforce his claim to the left lane.

55

How fast was the pickup driver going? He may well have been doing 75 in a 55 zone, and the Camaro thought it was too slow.

56

Various driving styles sometimes clash. Often drivers set their cruise and if they seem to be continually passing vehicles they remain in the left lane even when there is a significant gap from one slower vehicle to the next. They recognize that they are overtaking the next vehicle even if it is 1/4 mile away and remain fixed in the passing lane. I often find myself doing that but make an effort to recognize when someone like the Camaro driver is approaching and allow them to pass but on occasion, as in this video, someone closes so quickly from behind and aggresively presses the issue and I hesitate to move due to their being in my tail pipe so to speak and obviously not using good judgement so I accelerate somewhat and continue on past the slower vehicle and then move to the right as soon as I can. The pickup driver hanging at the front of the semi to box the Camaro in seemed to be somewhat spiteful but I would guess that the Camaro driver is in a constant state of rage and has pushed his luck in such situations before and likely will again with or without a license of insurance.

It would be interesting to know the speed of the vehicles in the video. And the speed limit.

57

@insightful No, that’s right. The legislation for left lane only travel was an add on to the state constructional amendment that adopted a secession from the union mandate to come into effect in 2020.

58

@Bing "If you look at the very beginning of the video, the PU driver is in the left lane tooling along while the right lane is empty. "

No he passed on person and when the lane was 'open" there was another person in front of him and they were catching up to the semi. Now given that you shouldn’t cut a person off when you pass, it may have been unsafe for him to move right. And once they pass the first semi there wasn’t enough room to safely pull in between the two semis.

Again, I’m betting he had his curse control on and the semi was slowing down and speeding up, it’s happened to me many times when my cruse control is on, start to pass and we go down a little hill and the semi speeds up a little, which means I’m not gaining as fast or maybe even losing a little ground, then up a small hill again and I then pass.

Given what we see this is 100% the Camaro’s fault.

59

“I’m betting he had his curse control on .”

Sure…before the collision he was probably controlling his cursing, but I’m willing to wager a fairly large amount that his cursing wasn’t controlled after the collision.

;-))

60

The speed limit on the NYS Thruway (where this happened) is 65mph. The Camaro driver was drunk, the pick-up driver was stupid, and the semi driver was unlucky. Despite my hatred of stupidity it is still not possible to get a ticket for being stupid so the pick-up driver should not get a ticket for anything. The Camaro driver should have been ticketed and jailed for DWI, reckless driving and many more charges.

For all of you people grousing about left lane hogs…get over it. The highway is not about you. It is a place where we all drive together. While left lane hogs (and oblivious drivers) make me crazy, I have learned that there is not much you can do but take a deep breath, relax, and wait for your moment to get around them safely. I promise you that your boorish and bullying road behavior will not only be ineffective in many cases but it absolutely will teach them nothing.