One lucky Cup

[John D]

Was just out driving near where I live following a crap Toyota at 30mph.

Two blokes stood on the curb wanting to cross and get into a taxi.

One of them decides to run in front of Toyota. Bit dodgy but fair enough; no real danger of being hit.

Now at this point I've watched the runner get to the taxi no probs and I'm watching the second guy to see if he's gonna copy his mate. Decide he clearly isn't.

Next thing I know Toyota's slammed on and stopped dead in front of me :headno:
I've got nowhere to go - slam on the brakes - lock up (yes its a Cup) - and slide into the back of the Toyota that I had'nt been watching for all of 2 secs whilst I was watching these two blokes.

Thankfully there appears to be no damage, which is a small miracle as far as I'm concerned as the contact felt all too heavy to me. I'm guessing I had shed enough speed and the Toyota driver was'nt still on the brakes when I hit her, and the bumpers did their job!

Apparently she had only just passed her test and thought the other guy was gonna run out as well. Thing is she did'nt even touch the brakes for the first guy - which is why it took me by surprise to stop for the guy still on the pavement

I was'nt following particularly close behind her either. I honestly don't see what I could reasonably be expected to have done differently in that situation; because the way she braked was completely random

 

[MrMark]

you are lucky no one rear ended you as well.

 

[fUbAr]

thats more than lucky...

 

[matt182]

I went up the back of someone in my work van and at the end of the day if you go up the back of someone i keep getting told you are to close end of. I didn't think i was to close either she stopped randomly but that how it goes this is just my opinion

 

[John D]

you are lucky no one rear ended you as well.

Damn right. Luckily there was no one following me. If that had happened I would have probably cried and/or gone absolutely apeshit at the guy who ran across in the first place!!

 

[John D]

I went up the back of someone in my work van and at the end of the day if you go up the back of someone i keep getting told you are to close end of. I didn't think i was to close either she stopped randomly but that how it goes this is just my opinion

Exactly what went through my head when I got out the car. You are right in terms of the letter of the law.

If there had been damage I would have asked for witness statements from people standing by that saw it happen. At least so I did'nt have to pay for her car as well! As it was at least partly her fault, but like you say as I hit the back of her; she could probably argue it was all me.

 

[Ad]

things is that someone has to take laiability and its always the person behind. Sometimes its unavoidable and not just a case of simply travelling to close, but still.....

just be glad theres no damage

 

[John D]

I'm counting my lucky stars defo :star: :star: :star: :star:

 

[paul_h172]

glad everything was ok.

 

[Noodle999]

Lucky mate... that's one of those annoying situations where you weren't necessarily travelling too close but the distraction ate up some of that distance by making your reaction slower!

It's happened to me a couple of times in the past where I've e.g. been keeping an eye on a load of school kids running down the pavement and the prat in front has decided to do an emergency stop for a squirrel or something equally stupid - clearly demonstrating that they weren't exercising any caution about the pedestrians or they wouldn't have noticed the stupid little creature in the road! There's a lot of people out there who shouldn't have licenses... yours was unique in just being inexperienced, most don't have any excuse

 

[John D]

Lucky mate... that's one of those annoying situations where you weren't necessarily travelling too close but the distraction ate up some of that distance by making your reaction slower!

It's happened to me a couple of times in the past where I've e.g. been keeping an eye on a load of school kids running down the pavement and the prat in front has decided to do an emergency stop for a squirrel or something equally stupid - clearly demonstrating that they weren't exercising any caution about the pedestrians or they wouldn't have noticed the stupid little creature in the road! There's a lot of people out there who shouldn't have licenses... yours was unique in just being inexperienced, most don't have any excuse

TBH she was a stupid bint anyway lol. Tried telling me I should have being paying more attention. I told her not to even try that with me :nono:

 

[MarkCup]

Ooh, that was a close one mate, glad you got through it ok.

What could you have done differently?

From an advanced driving perspective;

• had the driver in front given you any clues already that they were a bit of a novice? If so, you could of extended your stopping distance by dropping back to allow for their unpredictability
• similarly seeing the two guys looking like they might cross is best treated with a lift of the throttle and covering the brake as a matter of course
• slap on the wrist for the last one. 2 seconds inattention is 2 seconds too long, you cover about 15m or so in that time, which can easily take up all margin for error that you have

Don't take these comments as a criticism...it's just that it makes me wince hearing about this type of incident, and I hope the above can help.

(and I've just got back from an indian and I'm f***ed)

 

[CJ]

things is that someone has to take laiability and its always the person behind. Sometimes its unavoidable and not just a case of simply travelling to close, but still.....

just be glad theres no damage

Not necessarily, if you can prove she had no reasonable reason to stop, you could shunt her up the ass and still not be blamed insurance wise. You cannot be blamed for other peoples inabilty to interpret a situation.

 

[White16valver]

MarkCup speaketh the truth.

Though I've not had a car yet with ABS and I've been fine.

ABS is for girls lol

 

[Noodle999]

similarly seeing the two guys looking like they might cross is best treated with a lift of the throttle and covering the brake as a matter of course

I was meaning to say that as well but I forgot... in a situation where I think I might need to stop I'll slow down (if only by easing off). That's why it's only nearly happened to me (not had a single accident yet)... still s**ts you up a bit though and where the other driver has anchored up for no reason it shows poor judgement on their part.

Not necessarily, if you can prove she had no reasonable reason to stop, you could shunt her up the ass and still not be blamed insurance wise. You cannot be blamed for other peoples inabilty to interpret a situation.

Very very unlikely that you'd pull that one off... the best you could hope for is that they declare her partly to blame, but you're still always to blame when you hit the back end of the car you're following... obviously a sudden lane change / pulling out in front of you is another matter.

 

[John D]

What could you have done differently?

From an advanced driving perspective;

• had the driver in front given you any clues already that they were a bit of a novice? If so, you could of extended your stopping distance by dropping back to allow for their unpredictability

The fact that she was straddling two lanes (in the same direction) was a bit of a give away! Hence why I had'nt passed her already.

• similarly seeing the two guys looking like they might cross is best treated with a lift of the throttle and covering the brake as a matter of course

I was'nt on the gas I'm sure. But then I was'nt braking either. If only I had covered the brake properly this probably would'nt have happened - oh the joy of hindsight!

• slap on the wrist for the last one. 2 seconds inattention is 2 seconds too long, you cover about 15m or so in that time, which can easily take up all margin for error that you have

When I said 2 seconds I meant that being the absolute max I was'nt watching the rear of her car - in reality it might well have been less than that. I admit I was distracted. Thing is IMO I was watching the most obvious hazard at the time (the piss heads) - it just goes to show you can't count on other drivers doing the logical thing

Fair comment really Mark. I'll just put this one down to experience and try to avoid it happening again.

 

[NOT! gary l]

"Only a fool breaks the 2 second rule", provided you are 2 seconds behind her and brake when she did there shouldnt be any risk of rear-ending her, and if she is driving on 2 lanes of road id be a helluvalot more than 2 seconds behind her.

Majority of the time its the person who goes into someones rear who is at fault, which is why, when i have boy-racers up my a** revving like hell i slam the anchors on.

From what you say you were distracted by the first guy who had already crossed the road, surely if you were to be distracted at all it would be by they guy still waiting and in front of whom you had already believed to be a very unpredictable driver.

Ive never had a car with abs and find it quite frightnening the number of people who manage to write cars off without it but then still manage to blame it on no abs? just a thought but perhaps those people are just bad drivers.

Thats not a dig at you as you quite clearly didnt write the car off.

 

[John D]

From what you say you were distracted by the first guy who had already crossed the road, surely if you were to be distracted at all it would be by they guy still waiting and in front of whom you had already believed to be a very unpredictable driver.

Ive never had a car with abs and find it quite frightnening the number of people who manage to write cars off without it but then still manage to blame it on no abs? just a thought but perhaps those people are just bad drivers.

Thats not a dig at you as you quite clearly didnt write the car off.

Hmmm.....sounds like a little dig to me

That is correct. I was watching the guy still on the pavement mostly. I decided he clearly was'nt going to run out (as he would of got run over more than likely). Next thing I know the other car had stopped dead in front of me.

And for the record I'm not blaming this on lack of ABS. I seriously doubt even ABS would have stopped me hitting the car or enabled me to steer round it in time.

 

[jiminy]

Majority of the time its the person who goes into someones rear who is at fault, which is why, when i have boy-racers up my a** revving like hell i slam the anchors on.

that is the most stupid thing i have seen written in a while, well done

 

[NOT! gary l]

Majority of the time its the person who goes into someones rear who is at fault, which is why, when i have boy-racers up my a** revving like hell i slam the anchors on.

that is the most stupid thing i have seen written in a while, well done

Explanation then please?

What is more stupid? driving too close too someone (which is against the law)
or

Braking suddenly (which is not)

 

[John D]

Its stupid if you like the back of your car how it is.

But I'm hardly one to talk

 

[NOT! gary l]

Its stupid if you like the back of youre car how it is if the person behind you is even more stupid to keep an unsafe braking distance....ahem...

In all the years ive fended off people in such ways Nobody has went into the back of me yet, they must have been watching the road and the car in front (me).................thus, startded braking when i did meaning they didnt hit me but were able to heed the warning and back the hell off

 

[jiminy]

you are responsible for your safety and that off other road users

i am not condoning tailgating but if you brake hard in front of someone, you are causing an accident.

eg that car could hit you and the two scrotes that stole it then get out with their baseball bats and proceed to seriously beat you

or that car swerves off the road and into some playing kids

just two examples of what is possible

in that situation, the safest thing to do would be to gently reduce speed, either the idiot tailgating will take the hint or overtake, either way it will be at a reduced speed

the other option is if you have a performace advatage, is to get out of the way.

 

[John D]

Gary,

Theres a difference between using your brakes to give a warning to a tailgater like you have just described and slamming on like you said before:

Majority of the time its the person who goes into someones rear who is at fault, which is why, when i have boy-racers up my a** revving like hell i slam the anchors on.

In that situation they would have to "slam on'' pretty damn quick themselves to avoid you. IMO that is unreasonable and stupid. Your talking about brake testing which is also illegal I would of thought

 

[Tony Hunter]

We are certanly not allowed to use aggresive tactics on the track,so why would want to use them on the road? Anyway this is starting to sound like its going to be handbags in the carpark!!.I think hes learnt his lesson and be more aware next time,just nice to know no harm was done.

 

[NOT! gary l]

Well, unreasonable it may be, but as i said nobody has went into me and ive never went into anybody else.

Fact of the matter is, the guy tailgaiting is unreasonable and agressive, the fact i flash my brake lights or slam them on is (imo) irrelevant, he will then take the warning and think twice about tailgaiting in future.

Otherwise we are back to the situation where people tailgait and the car in front , for a genuine reason has to brake hard to avoid pedestrian/animal/horse/kids/guy crossing road to get taxi, and said offender then slams right into the back of someone.

Yes i may slam my brakes on but other times i will brake more gently, obviuosly im not going to brake to a standstill or brake hard to deliberately cause an accident.

If people continue to tailgait and people continue to let them do it then people will continue to rear end folk, it goes round in that viscous cycle, by frightening one pillock into braking hard he will realise how close he was to wiping out that crazy jap front bumper he has on his corsa and how close he was to bending the front of his cap on his sun visor, and hopefully keep a safe distance.

People in glass houses shopuldnt throw stones, i havent crashed yet....or caused a srash.

 

[MarkCup]

Is it much consolation knowing you are completely in the right, and the other person's in the wrong, when the back of your motor's stuffed in and you've got the time, hassle, and out of pocket expense of getting your car back on the road...all because you wanted to make a point?

If you get a tailgater who refuses to back off what you should do is ease off the throttle yourself slightly, give yourself more stopping distance so that you won't have to brake suddenly regardless of what happens.

If you don't have to brake suddenly, he's not going to hit you now is he?

You can't change the driving behaviour of 99.9% of the people out there, because most people think they've got nothing to learn.

What you can do is make sure that their imbecilic driving doesn't cause you to have an accident.

Or you could be a bit of a imbecile yourself and potentially cause an accident just to make a point.

 

[NOT! gary l]

I would like to take that approach but unfortunately its not in my nature, we all have our way of doing things and i do it my way.

Besides i have twin 3" tailpipes which seem to be sitting off centre so if someone was to hit it, it wouldnt be a bad thing

I hear what you're saying and fully understand, but i tend to get a little more irate than most when on the roads, when i see some git coming up behind me so close that i cant even see his headlights in my rear view mirror, i look a little closer and see 3 mates huddled up in the back seat and one riding shotgun all smiling and proud of their mate as he has the coolest corsa/saxo/nova.

He knows im in the fast lane overtaking but cant go faster as there are cars in front of me, of which im keeping a safe distance, he knows i cant go any faster yet he insists on trying to fit a condom on his bumper and get right up my A**, i put the foot down and make a gap, he puts his foot down and lessens it again, this carries on 3 or 4 times untill i decide "feck it, take that you c**t" and brake, hard, gently slammed on, whatever it takes to make him also brake, i watch in that rear view mirror as the same sniggering mates who thought the madcap driver is the best thing since schumacher, despite having passed his test only weeks earlier, are all jolted out of position, spliff flying through the air as they stare at schumacher thinking 'you fool'

I carry on observing the speed limit and keeping a safe distance between me and the car in front and watch as schuey drops further and further behind.

My methods are unorthodox but work for me, like i say its not in my nature to act calmly around ballbags, ill carry on doing it untill someone hits me (although unlikely) and if it happens il worry about it at the time.

 

[jimmyriddle]

lol love the do gooders! so perfect.

 

[NOT! gary l]

Im not a do-gooder, according to everyone else im a do-badder:rasp:

 

[AlexS]

I haven't read the whole thread, but did she have a 'P' plate displayed? If she did you should have been giving her extra room, if she didn't then shes a silly bint.

 

[John D]

I haven't read the whole thread, but did she have a 'P' plate displayed? If she did you should have been giving her extra room, if she didn't then shes a silly bint.

Nope. I suggest BINT across her forehead instead

 

[Karlos182]

Im not a do-gooder, according to everyone else im a do-badder:rasp:

There's far too much vigilante-ism on our roads at the moment. It's downright dangerous. If someone wants to drive like a loon, then let them. Like MarkCup said, you just drop back a little more to allow time for the both of you to stop safely. Just let these morons do their thing - they'll run into trouble soon enough. Hard braking won't work, as people don't learn from their mistakes on the road, as they often go unpunished.

It may not be "your way", but it's the only safe way there is. It sounds like your attitude to driving needs a little looking at tbh.

 

[Tony Hunter]

Sounds unhealthy to me

 

[alexbleubolt]

should be paying attention to the road when driving, not looking at blokes arses !!

 

[Leeshez]

lucky dude

 

[NOT! gary l]

Im not a do-gooder, according to everyone else im a do-badder:rasp:

There's far too much vigilante-ism on our roads at the moment. It's downright dangerous. If someone wants to drive like a loon, then let them. Like MarkCup said, you just drop back a little more to allow time for the both of you to stop safely. Just let these morons do their thing - they'll run into trouble soon enough. Hard braking won't work, as people don't learn from their mistakes on the road, as they often go unpunished.

It may not be "your way", but it's the only safe way there is. It sounds like your attitude to driving needs a little looking at tbh.

I'm assuming then, by you're post, you havent tried the hard braking method?

So how come you can say it doesnt work when i have tried it and KNOW it does

Like jimmyriddle says far too many do-gooders around.

 

[MarkCup]

LMAO at do-gooders; I see it as common sense.

 

[NOT! gary l]

Well, if you do nothing about that guy in youre rear view mirror in the hope he will eventually go away, in my opinion you have just as much chance of being rear ended by him as i do when i brake.

Common sense is taken out the equation when the numpty behind you has the I.Q of les battersby.

 

[MarkCup]

You've missed the point I made above completely.

Why will he hit you if he's too close? He's only going to hit you if you have to react to something suddenly, and he himself has therefore got no time to react.

By giving yourself more space you're not going to need to have to react suddenly to anything, so he's not going to hit you, as when you slow or brake you'll be doing it smoothly and progressively.

No risk to you, no risk to him. You still make the same progress on your route and get to where you need to be at the same time.

I'll put it another way...

My Tosser behind who's stuck up your arse...do you know him? Do you know his driving abilities?

Yet you put your faith and safety totally in his hands when you brake hard to make a point. You have caused an accident and you are relying on Mr Tosser to be alert enough to avoid colliding with you.

Do you normally put your personal safety in the hands of a complete f***wit?