Nearly rear-ended someone -on camera

ubersonic said:
Am I the only person that sees a car trying to leapfrog at the roundabout swerve in front of the OP without indicating and slam the brakes on for no reason? every one seems to be acting like he is a fault here :confused:

If the had been an accident the highway code would have sided with the OP.
Click to expand...

No it wouldn't - an accident would have been 100% the OP's fault, quite rightly so.

Yes, the Audi was queue jumping and tried to put her foot down to get in front and across into the OP's lane before the lights. It's quite possible the Audi driver was checking her mirror to make sure she had beaten the OP and could indeed change lane and entirely missed the lights changing. This is indeed cheeky, careless and inconsiderate. It even looks as if the Audi in the OP might be on the scam - trying to deliberately cause an accident to claim for whiplash...

BUT

As a good driver, you should be making allowances. People do brake for no reason, and there are people out there trying to cause deliberate collisions in order to claim compensation. As it was, the OP stayed on the throttle, and was a good 3 seconds too late on his brakes after the brake lights came on on the Audi, which meant the whole situation was a lot closer than it ought to have been.

As some well intentioned, friendly constructive advice: If you'd eased off the gas when the brake lights came on and hung back, you'd have had time to assess the situation and cruise gently up to the rear of the Audi, possibly giving a blast of the horn when a couple of car lengths back to alert the driver to the green light. If there was no further traffic on your right, you could potentially have just changed lane to the right and moved around the Audi.

The key is spotting/anticipating the actions of the other driver early and easing off the gas to give yourself time. The fact that you had to stop at all indicates there's room for improvement in the way you reacted to the situation.
 
timbob said:
No it wouldn't - an accident would have been 100% the OP's fault, quite rightly so.
Click to expand...

Actually that was a statement not part of the question, with the video evidence and the highway code in his favour its highly unlikely any court would rule against the OP if the had been an accident, in fact its more likely they may have gone after the Audi driver for dangerous/careless driving.



timbob said:
As it was, the OP stayed on the throttle, and was a good 3 seconds too late on his brakes after the brake lights came on on the Audi, which meant the whole situation was a lot closer than it ought to have been.
Click to expand...

The OP started braking as soon as she started swerving in to his lane,
 
Last edited:
ubersonic said:
Actually that was a statement not part of the question, with the video evidence and the highway code in his favour its highly unlikely any court would rule against the OP if the had been an accident, in fact its more likely they may have gone after the Audi driver for dangerous/careless driving.

The OP started braking as soon as she started swerving in to his lane,
Click to expand...

The video evidence isn't in his favour though as it shows lacking anticipation skills, slow reactions and generally not great defensive driving.

In fact, if the OP had have crashed, my advice would be to go to court and NOT present the video evidence at all (pretend it never existed), as I'm sure a good lawyer could construe it that the OP tried to continue accelerating until the last moment to engineer a close call in order that he could shock the Audi driver and give a good blast of the horn - not that I am saying this is a case.

The only evidence of braking I see is the sudden stop at the end - my foot had been on my imaginary brake for a good 3 seconds by that point.
 
Haggisman said:
You'll notice the L in like wasn't captilised.

Much in the same way as Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals isn't RSFTPOCTA or Royal National Institute of Blind people isn't RNIOBP.

Nice try though ;)

Anyway, I thought it was pretty good for something off the top of my head :p
Click to expand...

I'd keep working on it.
 
Enfield said:
I see you're a trucker. There was actually in the same spot there a truck that hit a car in that very spot because he was in the wrong lane (lane on the left of mine). He was a foreigner though (polish plates).
Click to expand...

No surprise, especially with a left-hooker, he has a massive blind spot - and probably passed his HGV Class 1 with a Transit van & Caravan! - I **** you not! a fair few of the Poles who I work with have been re-trained since this common method of Polish driver "training" came to light!!!
 
You should always drive defensively, people stop for all sorts of reasons, if you don't leave enough room to be able to brake and not smash into the car in front then it's your fault.

HEADRAT
 
Johnnytoxic said:
there could have been a rabbit in the road for all you know.
Click to expand...

I got about 20 of the buggers in one go a few weeks back, approx 5am, loads of them having a "Watership Down" monent on the A47 near Wisbech.

Am I a bad driver for not braking and mowing them down I wonder??? ;)

When I was doing my HGV training, I was told to swerve for People,and other vehicles where you have chance to do so, but to always remember a violent change of direction in any vehicle can often have a worse outcome than the collision you were trying to avoid in the first place.

I know, I'm a Bunny mass murderer. :o

Edit:
Having finally persuaded my dongle to play the youtube clip in question, I'm sorry Enfield, it seems to me you missed the brake lights for whatever reason.

Lets put it this way, you managed to stop in time due to your cars lightish weight, had I done that in a fully freighted HGV I'd have been right in the back of her had I done what you seem to have done.

Expect the unexpected & all that, I hope that you have learned something from this. :)
 
Last edited:
Dogbreath said:
could HAVE :rolleyes:

Do you think slamming on your brakes on a busy main road for a rabbit is a good idea?
Click to expand...

Might not be a good idea, I bet lots of people if they see a fluffy bunny rabbit, instinct can take over and people will slam the anchors on without thinking.

Doesn't matter anyways, the driver behind should always leave a gap to stop safely if the achors are slammed on whenever and whatever the circumstances and adjust this to what speed they are going.

I leave much more of a gap nowadays than my younger years. Does you know favours being close to the car in front and you get bricks thrown up at your bonnet. This also works better if you want to overtake, if you pace someone AND leave a nice gap, you don't come across as being an ***hole and the driver in front usually sees this and moves over. If you are tailgating, they get the hump and stick in the outside lane.
 
Last edited:
Having heard a couple of horror stories about people slamming on to purposely cause a collision to do a fraudulent insurance claim I'd say you want to always leave room even for stupid driving like that.
 
I think most are forgetting that the full reaction, even with covering/slight braking at 7seconds in, doesn't come until you're right up the jacksie of someone stopping at a green when the road "appears" clear.
The audi driver is guilty of taking her eyes off the, recently red, lights as that's the only reason I can see for them stopping.
It's the motoring equivalent of an optical illusion. You know the car is stopping but it's not for a red light and the road is clear, brain confuzzled, driver has to override the "it's green we go" to apply the brakes when normally you just wouldn't.
Only equivalent I can think of is the rear ending of cars waiting to pull out of junctions or onto roundabouts when the rear-ender has seen a very suitable gap and "assumed" the car in front would take it.
Where's the "does not compute" jpg? Lost your pen when it's right in front of you before?
Well done for stopping op.
 
Having watched the video a few times today im now fairly sure this was actually a deliberate attempt to cause an accident, even if the lights had been red the Audi would have stopped well over the line, the driver basically floored it past the OP then swerved in front of him while slamming on the brakes in an effort to get themselves rear ended.

If I were you OP I would pass this video on to the police.
 
Appropriate number plate for a mentalist driver, Even so you should have reacted quicker but then I s'pose driving & holding the camera slowed you down. :D < joke. ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom