Sounds like you can add yourself to this thread for tailgating.
Your bad driving encounters
- Thread starter Stu999
- Start date
Sounds like you can add yourself to this thread for tailgating.
Insurance company says nope. It seems the driver behind should reasonably expect the driver in front to drive with due care and attention.
UK law states it’s actually wrong to stop for some animals if your actions could cause an accident. It also seems emergency stopping is only for emergencies… who’d a thunk it?
UK law states it’s actually wrong to stop for some animals if your actions could cause an accident. It also seems emergency stopping is only for emergencies… who’d a thunk it?
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Very much this. I used to come home from every journey with a story about how annoying other drivers had been. Like you, I used to be angry about it. It's really not good for your blood pressure.
The standard of driving certainly hasn't got better, but there's nothing you can do about that. You need to change your mindset before you do yourself a mischief.
I tend to find it faintly amusing these days, unless they do something which genuinely endangers me directly.
Oh technically I agree, but it also could have been avoided had I taken the bus, stayed at home. Or and bear with me on this one... as the insurance company (under UK law) decided, the muppet in front had not done an emergency stop for no reason.
The insurer clearly felt my distance was reasonable, and that my driving was not in any way responsible for the accident. No amount of you saying otherwise means diddly squat really. I am sure the other person's insurers tried to make the same claim that I was "tailgating", but just like you, they were wrong.
Like you I was under the mistaken assumption that I was at fault, despite being about 2 seconds behind at 30ish MPH.
FWIW, had there been an actual emergency stop required I would have seen it and reacted much faster. The problem is that emergency stopping for no reason severely reduces the following drivers reaction times. Even a half second thinking "what are you stopping for" is the difference.
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Soldato
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Every time i come up to a merge, motoways merging often special despite blue signs indicating what is ahead. The merge does not go in the order of, left, left, left, right, right, right, left, right, right, right.
?
Not sure what your point is to be fair. Normally you are meant to yield if your lane is ending, yet you always get the ones who go out of their way to actually stop cars merging in turn.
Man of Honour
I had a very similar accident where I slammed my brakes on, car hit me up the back and it was 100% that drivers fault.
Actually another one, I was driving and at the last moment realised I was driving into stopped traffic, I emergency braked, missed the car in front but the car behind hit me and he was also 100% at fault.
The sad bit of that was he had just bought it off the garage forecourt brand new.
I find it amazing in all the years of driving (since 1975) that you're the first person I've ever heard of where you've ran into the back of someone and not been at fault!!
Caporegime
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I've been deicing mine and the wife's cars this week and even with deicer and a scraper my hand is painfully cold by the time I'm done. Sod holding onto the windscreen
I look forward to seeing someone licking the screen trying to warm up. How about arse on screen? Big surface area?
Soldato
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Backing up of traffic due to braking caused by impatience or lack of understanding how to merge is dangerous. Drivers undertaking a lorry during its merge is not how to merge, especially so when that driver's merge involves the hard shoulder or going across solid white line. I've seen that then accompanied by driver smashing on brakes not far in front of lorry as they realise the motoway we're joining is going 20mph
Were you emergency stopping for a reason and was it obviously an emergency even to the cars behind? Or to put it another way was it a reasonably expected emergency situation?
I do only know of 1 other accident where a friend drove into the back of someone who half turned into a junction and stopped on those zig-zag lines. It turned out the driver in front was stopping to "let her passenger get out of the car". So my friend also got off on that because it is illegal to stop and "park" on those lines.
For me it was a case of the car in front braking hard for no valid reason and it taking a split second of decision time for me to realise "they aren't just slowing down, they are stopping". Had there been a clear and obvious emergency I would have seen it and reacted differently and avoided the collision.
Like I said it surprised me as well that the other driver was deemed 100% liable. I was expecting (but not accepting at the time) full blame but it didn't even go to court. The only reason I can assume this, was because the other drivers statement corroborated my own view that "I was at a reasonable distance and the car in front emergency stopped for no reason". Her statement basically said 'an ambulance drove past me and I emergency stopped and the car behind was unable to stop in time". So they were in essence saying they emergency stopped for no reason and caused an accident.
Vehicle Stopped Suddenly Causing Accident
Most of the time, if a vehicle has collided into the rear of your vehicle then they will be at fault. These types of accidents are the most common type and are known to us in the business as rear end shunts. However, sometimes it is possible that the driver that has been hit will … Continue...
www.theinjurylawyers.co.uk
Scott v Warren [1974].
Defendant driving in a line of moving traffic was unable to avoid hitting the van in front which had made an emergency stop to avoid hitting a piece of metal which had fallen off a lorry in front of a van. Magistrates dismissed the case. Prosecution went for a "case stated' at High Court on the grounds that if the driver did not leave sufficient space between himself and the vehicle in front to avoid a collision then in breach of the Highway Code and a due care. Divisional Court disagreed holding whether a person has driven carelessly is a matter of fact: the duty of a driver following another was, as far as reasonably possible, to take up a position and to drive in such a fashion as to be able to deal with all traffic exigences REASONABLY TO BE EXPECTED.
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Ah yes, I get you now and agree. People pushing up in the left lane to stop the right lane merging is annoying. There is a dual lane slip road just after a busy roundabout that merges into one lane and rather than use the right lane, most drivers will back up onto the roundabout. So when the smart people use the right lane to avoid causing a traffic jam, they get dirt looks.
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Soldato
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- 30 Sep 2005
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I was about to say "some of the worst drivers in the country", but actually they are THE worst drivers. It's usual to see people stop at green lights for some bizarre reason.
Caporegime
In one day last Friday I saw an accident on the A406, M25, M11 and there was a warning on the A1 of an hour delay due to an accident just after the A605 which luckily was my exit. The thing that always gets me is when you see their faces. They always have that gormless look about them that driving is number 563 of the list of things they were doing at that time.
I got into the yard dropped my trailer, parked my unit and pulled my card out at exactly 4:30 drive time! The guy upstairs was doing everything to stop me that day! Normally it would take 3 hours tops.
The most recent numpty I saw was someone reversing down the A1139 fletton parkway (3 lane part) at around 4:30 in the morning because he missed the junction. The numpty could have just gone a mile up the road and turned around. One day he will end up in a coffin. You would be surprised just how many people I see reversing down the hard shoulder when they have taken a wrong exit. I always give them a bit of my horn to see them poo themselves in their drivers seat. Too many sat nav followers instead of reading road signs.
I got into the yard dropped my trailer, parked my unit and pulled my card out at exactly 4:30 drive time! The guy upstairs was doing everything to stop me that day! Normally it would take 3 hours tops.
The most recent numpty I saw was someone reversing down the A1139 fletton parkway (3 lane part) at around 4:30 in the morning because he missed the junction. The numpty could have just gone a mile up the road and turned around. One day he will end up in a coffin. You would be surprised just how many people I see reversing down the hard shoulder when they have taken a wrong exit. I always give them a bit of my horn to see them poo themselves in their drivers seat. Too many sat nav followers instead of reading road signs.
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Soldato
I'm finding the amount of mobile phone usage sickening. I picked up some beers from the local brewery and turned onto a NSL road, where up in front I saw a car all over the place, including being on the wrong side of the road. I eventually get level with them at the upcoming traffic light controlled round about, look over and they have a giant (like Samsung Note sized) baby blue phone to their ear. I blasted my horn at them and shouted put it down which they promptly did.
Walking back to work after picking lunch up in town, I walk past cars either stationary or coming to a stop as their light is red. Easy to spot drivers on their phones because their head is looking down - there were four of them tapping away at their phones in the space of about seven cars.
I just don't understand it, especially when it's modern cars. My phone is plugged into USB under the centre arm rest, running Android Auto and I don't touch it until after my journey. I often forget to take it out of my car as I forget it's there.
Walking back to work after picking lunch up in town, I walk past cars either stationary or coming to a stop as their light is red. Easy to spot drivers on their phones because their head is looking down - there were four of them tapping away at their phones in the space of about seven cars.
I just don't understand it, especially when it's modern cars. My phone is plugged into USB under the centre arm rest, running Android Auto and I don't touch it until after my journey. I often forget to take it out of my car as I forget it's there.
Soldato
Recently, with the rise of the crash for cash scams a rear-ender isn't now necessarily deemed the rear car's fault.
We had it with buses with vehicles swerving in front of the bus and hitting the brakes.
If you can prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt that the actions of the driver in front were deliberate/careless/dangerous then there's a possibility you won't be found at fault. This is where cameras are king.
Caporegime
My dad went in the back of a learner about 20 years ago and was found not at fault. The learner, for no reason at all, jammed their brakes on. Nothing in front of them etc. etc. It was classed as careless driving on behalf of the learner.