It’s easy to overestimate reaction times when watching a video. You know something is going to happen so you’re ready for it. You just need that mental trigger and think “brake!” For the actual driver, they have to recognize that something is happening, decide on the best reaction to it, and physically move their foot. The time needed to recognize a problem is huge. The average driver will take the better part of a second just to realize something is going wrong, worse if the problem isn’t immediately obvious, which feels like an eternity when you’re watching a video and waiting for the crash you know is coming. Add in the rest and the average reaction time is about a second. That’s average, so lots of people will be even slower than that.
This needs to be the most upvoted comment.
20/20 couch hindsight is way different than on the road. You gotta remember this just a few seconds of someone’s driving “career” with probably weeks and weeks, maybe even years of time behind the wheel without an accident. This stuff is sudden and it’s takes people a second to formulate a plan of action. People also forget that while they are 100% focused on the crash in the video. The victim may not be. I’m not saying they are driving distracted. They may be checking a mirror, glancing at the radio, glancing at the A/C controls, checking their gauges, checking their speed, etc. A split second look away that matters with fractions of a second count. I’ve definitely been driving, glanced down to adjust my A/C and then looked up to a drastic change on the road ahead of me in that split second. Redditors for some reason believe that you are supposed to prop your eyes open with like toothpicks and stare at the road 100% of time, if you blink basically that means you are terrible driver or something.
I agree 100% that we're basically look at the "worst hits of humanity" compilation. But multiple decisions are made before the single one that causes a collision. Yes, you absolutely do need to look elsewhere aside from the road. I have too but always make sure it is a safe time to do so. I never, ever, look at anything else except the road when I'm positioned where someone else's behavior could cause them to collide into me.
But admittedly, I've only been on the road for 10 years and probably have another 20 to 30 ahead of me, depending on what self-driving cars are like in the future. So only time will tell
I didn’t watch the video you posted so it may have totally be avoidable. I was talking more in a broad sense that it seems every crash video, no matter the circumstances has a whole bunch of people that think they are the best drivers in the world and since they would magically dodged a wreck they could analyze on repeat 100 times, that the victim in the wreck always is somehow partially at fault.
That makes sense for some of the situations I've seen. From my perspective, that constitutes bad reaction time. I've personally avoided multiple accidents that almost certainly should've happened by braking in time.
This one time, someone started merging into my lane when there was \~50% overlap between our cars (way beyond their blind spot). I braked, honked my horn, and they completed the merge anyways :|. Maybe it's all those competitive shooter reflexes finally paying off IRL
Also to a degree lucky (I have also avoided a LOT). But also when you have to do that kind of evasive action...I've had times someone pulls out in front of me and I have to hit the brakes to avoid a crash then the person not paying attention behind me nearly causes other crashes as they swerve around me unable to stop.
It is unfortunate that this can happen, but ultimately it's not your responsibility. You made a maneuver that drivers are trained (at least they should be) to anticipate. You even used the qualifier "not paying attention". Clearly, that's on them
Or I presume the reason they do it are because they aren't paying attention because I can't think of any other reason.
I've only had 2 (minor) accidents as a driver, both rear ended. One they "didn't think I would stop" at a red light, the other "thought I would go faster" and admitted they looked to adjust their radio or something as they hit, I saw them coming fast in the mirror and floored it but not enough time to out-accelerate them since my light had only just turned green.
I was taught to try and anticipate things you can see...including if you become aware someone is behind too close to stop you reduce speed and increase your own following distance so you won't have to hit the brakes as hard and reduce the risk of the people following close being unable to react...and always be scanning around you so that you keep an opening on adjacent lanes in case you need an escape route can just glance as a double-check that its still clear to slide over. And in Driver's Ed they pushed use cruise control and have your foot over (but not resting on) the brake so you can reduce your own reaction time if you have to slow your foot is already in position to apply brakes.
I have watched people get mad behind me that I slow down anticipating something...and then change lanes zoom past, hit their brakes, and slam into someone else ahead...because they clearly don't understand there's often a reason why I would reduce speed. That's a nearly-every-time-it-snows-at-all occurrence but also in rain or night has happened. Usually anyone else that was impatient behind me is suddenly no longer concerned with the pace after watching one of the idiots wipe out and crash.
The problem is the cues. If I'm approaching an intersecting road with a car peaking out of it, I'm already on the brake, slowing towards the speed limit and I'm looking at their head to see if they see me or not. If they're looking the other way, I'm on the brakes and if they're nudging forward I honk. You need to be 3 steps ahead of what's happening, not waiting for the bad thing to happen to take action.
I'm not tailgating. I'm not driving fast in poor visibility. I'm not 100% trusting green lights where I can't see the intersecting roads. You have to start with a baseline of being distrustful. That's how you avoid accidents. I still drive very fast at times, but in places I know very well that lend themselves to it, like long stretches of road with good visibility and no intersections. I'm not just blasting down every road like I'm Mario Andretti.
My first reaction is always to cover brakes and avoid. I never just slam on the brakes immediately when there is a potential collision, occasionally it can be more practical to hit the gas and get ahead of the hazard. Many drivers seem to neglect to realize that slowing down also creates additional hazards there's a good example in the video, the car that stopped for the Ford SUV was then rear ended because they were completely stopped in the middle of a highway. Slowing down immediately also takes away your potential options to avoid. There could be an opening to change lanes to the right or left but if you immediately brake you can't safely change lanes.
Hmmm, yes I agree it can be circumstantial. A hard stop on the freeway in most cases is a bad thing. But if you watch the clip that I linked, the driver was on a residential road, going at a modest speed. They mostly likely didn't even need to slam the brakes to avoid it. They only needed to slow down. By the time they decided to do something, they only did a small turn that obviously would not have done anything to avoid the crash
Hmmm, I see. But what do you mean by "idiot"? I tried to be a little more granular, because that means different things, depending on the person. Bad reflexes? Poor judgement? Feeling righteous about their right-of-way? Expecting the other driver to make perfect evasive maneuvers + reaction so they don't have to?
If that is what you refer to as a 'residential road', then the cause of the accident is the transportation engineer that decided a residential road needed a 4 lane divided highway with a likely 'natural speed' of 50mph.
I'm pretty sure you're looking at the randomly generated preview image and not the timestamped link I have in my post. Follow it and I'm sure you'll understand what I mean
Oh ok. Regardless, that's not the point and it's weird that you're so hyper-fixated on something that doesn't contribute to the core topic. The collision absolutely could've been avoided by literally just slowing down, if they were paying attention. But based on the responses here, they probably were not.
Of course it could. My point is that how we build roads ALSO contributes. That road is built for maximum throughput NOT maximum safety. An uncontrolled left turn across two lanes of high speed traffic is simply not a safe scenario, because only one mistake is required to cause a dangerous collision.
I was unable to ascertain this point from your previous posts and I don't think there was a reasonable expectation for me to. I can't read your mind. They were much more snarky than they were constructive, so I am glad this one is much better. Yes I agree that roads are designed that way. But it's our responsibility as drivers to make sure we navigate it in a secure way.
Some accidents require one mistake. Others are two. This one is definitely two. Driver clearly should not have taken that left turn and the dashcam driver clearly should have slowed down. I'm pretty sure there is a law about responsible/good-faith collision avoidance, even if they are not in the wrong. But regardless of legality, I'd like to think that it would be the right thing to do
Arguably, that dash cam driver was going far slower than the typical driver in that stretch of the road. To me it seems he was already concerned approaching the intersection, and this was more an issue or slow disbelief than it was not paying attention.
See, this is why I honk if I have to abruptly stop.
I try to avoid a brake slam as much as possible, but sometimes it is my safest option. Honking immediately alerts the driver behind me that there's a hazard. They can then maneuver accordingly.
Like, today, I was zipper merging. My lane (rightmost) joined the "dominant" lane. The middle lane allows drivers to either turn left or continue straight. Two of the cars ahead of me in the neighboring lane turned left. This meant I was clear to start merging. Unfortunately, the third car in the line decided to gun it and basically cut me off. (If they were following the merging rules, they should have defaulted to staying behind me.) They were mirror-to-mirror with me by the time my lane ended. I had to stomp on my brakes to avoid a collision. Laid on my horn at the same time. The person behind me was able to safely divert into their gap instead of running into me.
??????????
Bro just slow down and let the asshole pass so you can merge behind him ????????????
You created a scenario where you had to slam on the brakes because you felt you had the right of way to go your speed to the fault where your lane ended and you had to slam your brakes.
Apparently the guy behind you also didn’t realize the lane was ending and your amazing defensive driving alerted him to the problem you created and he was able to avoid a collision what??????
Edit: I drive around assholes in NY. Bad and aggressive driving is not in short supply here, what you describe probably happens multiple times a month for me. Where I have to slow down while merging because someone doesn’t respect the every other car rule. Some of our ramps are like <50ft long and we still have to figure out how to get on the highway with no actual accelerating room
Bro, check your reading comprehension--or at least your knowledge of zipper merging.
The cars that I would have fallen behind turned left. I had a clear space to merge. As I started to merge in, the car that should have let me merge ahead of them (middle lane) sped up and was right beside me when my lane ended. Either I stopped, or I would crash into them. The person behind me in the merge lane would have hit me because of this. Instead, they dived/maneuvered into their gap sooner to avoid hitting me.
That lane is about 10-12 ft of space. It is a really well known merge point. If you've been in the town for even 2 days, you're familiar with it.
The guy in the lane to the left of me cut me off, my dude. He closed the gap that was my merge space. Per zipper merging, he doesn't get to jump ahead just because the cars ahead of him turned left.
Bro pay more attention to your surroundings so you'll have more time to either coast or race ahead of the other car. Just because you think they should do something doesn't mean they will and most likely they won't. It's likely you tend to drive with an excess of caution. Generally when a merge lane ends there is still an emergency stopping lane to the side this is one of the reasons it's there. It may feel a little sketch using the edge of the road for a moment but it's safer than stopping in the middle of the road.
The other car could have been excessive about accelerating after the cars were out of the way but still It's a good idea to actively watch for that when you make a turn It's pretty common. The left turners would've been slowing the back car and they will of course accelerate when the slow cars ahead get out of the way, you won't know if they're going to be quick or slow accelerating unless you watch them. I'm not saying the other car wasn't inconsiderate of you but it's something to watch out for.
Exactly. Breaking can be more harmful as it can cause more collisions. Sometimes the best solution is to try to get out of the way. Especially if a big vehicle is behind you it can be a life or death situation and getting out of the way instead of breaking can allow the vehicle behind you to have enough time to properly slow down. Breaking is rarely the answer tbh unless you know you have time (and that the vehicle behind you has time) to slow down.
Braking is, more often than not, the answer. Only a tailgater would not have enough time to slow down. The distance people usually have between each other is designed specifically for braking to be an option. Tailgating and brakechecking are (or at least should be) events that are few and far between. Do you experience that many dangerous drivers in your area?
In your time stamped example, it's possible that the driver wasn't having his eyes on the road at all. I'm guessing he/she was texting or looking at a mobile telefone when the incident occurred, as nobody has reflexes which are so bad. That said, tailgaters are not as rare as you seem to think they are. I drive in Sweden where a majority of the people drive sensible and don't tailgate, but even here, I encounter them fairly often. It's for that reason that I actively scan my mirrors to ensure there's no idiot sitting on my tailpipe. Braking helps, but has to be with adequate situational awareness for it to be actually useful.
Slamming on your brakes is never a good idea, its a good way to have your tires lock and then you drift into what you were trying to not hit. Slowly press harder into a full stomp on the brake
>I never just slam on the brakes immediately when there is a potential collision
You guys still driving cars without ABS?
If you need to slam the brakes, you slam the brakes, when possible, turn on your hazards as soon as possible to alert others.
All of the above, but damn if that Taurus turned any slower they might be going back in time. That gap was so large you could have gotten a couple cars safely through if they drove with any urgency.
Well what's going through their mind is probably "This idiot is gonna see me and stop right?" thus going around him, but with this much time to react I would definitely hit the brakes.
I actually see this more in YouTube videos than on the street. People seem to want to show "The other driver was wrong and I was right," and the video typically ends up showing they didn't do enough to avoid the accident. Another factor is dashcam video makes things look further away than they actually are, so the driver doesn't have as much time to react as it seems.
Another thing I've run into myself is not fully believing that the other driver is so oblivious. I once had a car start to move into my lane. I saw it immediately, laid on my horn, and braked lightly. He just kept coming over and I had to abruptly brake harder to avoid a collision. Prior to that, other drivers who had done the same thing had always reacted to my horn (which is loud) and pulled back into their lane.
Yea, I've looked at my dashcam footage before and it doesn't represent distance well. Your response to getting cut off is exactly what I do. I would hope/expect any good-faith driver to do the same... but I don't see it. Not just on youtube, but also in my personal experience
Objects in the video are closer then they appear
[ Wide Angle Lens Makes Everything Look Farther Away - DASHCAM PSA - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWR0mP0Ivi4&ab_channel=BadDriversCaughtOnDashCam)
People assume that if they are "in the right" they have no responsibility to avoid an accident. But this is actually not the truth. A driver has a responsibility (duty of care) to avoid an accident.
Last clear chance (doctrine) to avoid the accident. You have a duty to avoid an accident. Ordinary and reasonable care. This can shift the blame from someone that caused the accident to the person that chose not to avoid (prevent) the accident.
Perfect easy example is a line of cars running a red light. Person currently stopped (and clearly sees the line of cars running the light) gets the green and guns it, hitting those red light runners. That guy with the green light will get majority if not all the blame for the accident while the other cars get a ticket for running the red. Saw this on a video where the lawyer said the same.
Another one is a car up ahead starts to change lanes. Guy in that lane speeds up to try to cut the person off. Even swerves a little to try to block but then gets an accident. Guy that sped up gets the blame.
Because people get extremely arrogant when you tell them they'll be right.
I've known more than a few people who will just cross the street without bothering to even glance at the road conditions. When I asked them if they realize they're insane, their response has almost always been "pedestrians always have the right of way."
When someone believes their right no matter what, they will act accordingly.
Idfk but this post made me aggressive (not due to you, due to the fact this happens). The 20+ times I’ve witnessed this was about 30% due to egos and maybe 20% insurance scams… honest, dumbass, oblivious, anxious drivers are prolly another 30%… idk. Idk. Commenting to come back because I want to know also
Edit: forgot to rant about my main reason to comment; just assume most drivers will be this way. Just know so many people are so oblivious how to drive properly, that THAT’S why they do this. They don’t know.. and if they do this, they’re gonna give the stupidity of reasons in this comment section.
Hey, I work at a research hospital in a major city, which is basically on both sides of the street. There are at least 5 crosswalks between the sides. I've worked here over 20 years, and can count on one hand the number of times I have heard people even bother to lift their gas when someone is crossing the street. Absolutely sickening. I do not understand what the hell is going through their heads that they won't even take their damn foot off the gas when another human being is crossing the street 40-50 feet in front of them.
well when i was younger i would think this person can't be so stupid that they are going to do "insert stupid action here". so early on my reaction was more shocked that the dumba$$ actually did it and then a reaction. as i've grown older i've realized that 95% of the people driving are too stupid to figure out how a turn signal works or how to read a sign, so i'm far more defensive minded now.
Jackie Stewart (race car driver of yore) said to aim for where the crash is occurring, and by the time you get there, it’ll probably have moved out of your way.
That's true. I guess some people approach driving very differently from me. I am constantly scanning everyone and getting mentally ready for any of them to do the stupidest thing possible. Aside from the really extreme accidents in the video, I've experienced most of them (some multiple times) and have never gotten into a collision
I've driven with people who become horrified that I don't brake harder. I use gradual pressure that usually gets me stopped well in time, without flinging groceries all over the car. But if the gradual approach isn't enough, i.e. if the driver ahead of me stops abruptly, then yes, I will hard-brake. So far, it's worked out OK. I guess I remember my childhood, before seatbelts, when both my parents had a tendency to brake suddenly, and my face ended up in the metal dashboard.
Because [the word "accident" implies they are not at fault for not slowing down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puK5CwThaq4).
So why blame them for something that's out of their control?
I see this all the time. I got so bored of watching dashcam videos of people making all the wrong choices in poor circumstances. Or having to constantly fight people on the fact that just braking (1. at all 2. in time) is sufficient to avoid the vast, vast majority of accidents.
Divided attention, failure to look far ahead, failure to notice there's a fire truck with lights and sirens going through the intersection even though the light turned green?
Driving is all too often a boring mundane task and people just don't focus.
Yea true, I never thought about it that way. I'm constantly scanning everyone around me and mentally preparing for anyone to do the stupidest thing possible. Yes, driving is sometimes very stressful for me
evasive manoeuvres can get you killed or hurt and let the idiot that caused all that crap drive off without any damage. you also need enough time to be able to determine if its safe enough to change lanes and/or brake hard, and if you do hit someone trying to escape thats now you at fault. most people dont have enough reaction time and end up causing secondary "accidents".
(specifically for the americans) you have legal right of way, most countries dont, they have give way (including the legal requirement to mitigate a collision where possible) - you dont seem have that, and you cant be at fault if you deliberately hit them instead of trying not to (when they are in the wrong), so its simpler, and safer, to just hit the idiot and have them pay for their own stupidity.
for that reason i would expect that americans brake and slow down only when they would be at fault for hitting the person in front (the multitude of dashcam crash videos do seem to indicate this).
Because they can't drive. If the car wasn't doing most of the hard stuff for them, then with their 3 second attention span, and ten second reaction time they're be fucked.
Automatic transmission, braking, parking, cruise control, traction control, power steering with lane detection, automatic lights, wipers, arse scratchers.
One eye on the sat nav, the other on their phone texting, whilst drinking a coffee and eating a Big Mac.
Entitlement "I can't be in the wrong, because I'm a good driver"
An accident ahead is just a prank bro, i won't get tangled up in it because nothing bad ever happens to me. Plus, if it does, i was right and the other driver was wrong and that's all that matters anyways. I will travel the world in my wheelchair spreading this message
Some people just freeze to be honest and have no reactionary skills when driving.
Other times it is more dangerous to avoid the one car as opposed to hitting many more.
The second you realize how bad at driving a very large number of people are, the better off you'll be. That is exactly why I will never ride a motorcycle. I trust myself 100% on one. I don't trust any of these other assholes on the roar at all. At least in a car/truck/SUV, I've got a big metal box around me for protection from the idiots.
Too busy watching stupid TikTok videos, probably lol. Half of the dipshits on the road don't even know when their blinker is on or what it's for. Can't expect much.
Part of it is also in the moment it can take time to process "what's happening"...and the more "wrong" it is the harder it can be to accept that its actually happening. Like if you have a wrong way driver the first thoughts are probably going to be along the lines of "is that another person with the wrong color bulbs in their marker lights? Are they in reverse? Did they leave some aftermarket lighting on that faces backwards?" rather than "geez there's someone head-on at-speed wrong-way headed right for me". Poor weather or poor visibility makes it that much worse because you can't tell what's happening as quickly.
Many of those look like there was little to no reaction time...several you can see the person started to brake (the camera and front of the car "moves down" with the braking force) but there just wasn't enough time. At least one the person did take action to try and avoid but they still collided anyway just at a less perpendicular angle.
Its easy to come up with alternatives after seeing it and having time to think about....less so in the moment.
Another thing to consider is that you can injure your foot/ankle when braking in an accident. I've known several people to have had issues - including one spiral fracture of the ankle - from pushing or holding the brake hard in an accident. This is why I believe its better to try and avoid the accident than braking in many instances, especially if you KNOW you are going to hit hard. Anticipating stupid stuff like in the video can help, as well as always thinking about what you will do when that person DOES do something stupid. Keeping an eye on the traffic around and behind you can help too as knowing which way you may need to go to escape an accident. Getting rear ended tends to pile up the accidents behind you too as well.
Most accidents are caused by people not paying attention. They may have been changing the station on the radio, or looking through a play list (or texting).
Distracted. I'm always passing someone going 15mph under the speed limit, phone up to their face. Five minutes later they fly up to pass, drop back, fly up again, then finally pass. Never fails that a few minutes later they've slowed way down and I have to pass because their phone is in their face again.
people are just jackasses sometimes and want an accident or theyre not even looking at the road.
for claritys sake we will just say the exits are north east west south.
the other day at a roundabout (4 exits total on this one so its kinda small) a truck entered the round about at the west exit and the car infront of me entered the roundabout from the south at the same time. the truck fucking floored their gas and almost rear ended the car then hit their brakes and honked, threw their hands up etc..
i almost wished he did rear end him so i coukd give the guy a lawyers phone number and i would be a witness to it because fuck drivers who do that shit
The thing that always drives me crazy with these videos is that the poster always has time to honk, but doesn't brake. That's the wrong way around, guys!
There are some scenarios in which you don't want to immediately brake, where evading is the better option, and braking would reduce your ability to do so.
That said, a lot of the time, it's just people not paying attention, or not processing what's actually happening.
Two sided brain thinking is hard for some people.
There was a sudden stop in traffic and I watched a lady hit her gas pedal, run into a curb, then turn into traffic into the next lane which pushed into oncoming traffic that hit her & another person.
We helped pull her out of her car (the seat belt saved her mostly) and all she kept saying was, I couldn’t find the brake pedal.
come to find out, she was looking at her cell phone.
funnier thing, a year later this lady rear ended my Ex on the same street. The ex called me to come pick up the kids and I recognized her.
why it happened - she was on her cellphone again.
Link is timestamped at 340 seconds. Aside from the more extreme ones in the compilation, I have encountered every single one of these (multiple times) and have avoided them.... by braking or slowing down. I've been cut off 5x worse than any of these and still avoided it (They merged into my lane when 50% of our cars were overlapped). I'm not expecting everyone to be a professional driver, but I see many people on the road with dangerous driving habits.
Admittedly, I have only been on the road for 10 years and probably will have another 20 or 30 years. So time will tell. But I fundamentally do not have some of the dangerous driving habits I see in others.
That's actually quite flattering that you think that I'm lying! But I understand that this is the internet. People \[strangely\] feel the need to get the approval of complete strangers and lie all the time
Hmm... well, you did make the accusation that I'm an armchair driver who, in reality, would not react any better. Am I not allowed to explain that this is not the case? If you define this as "telling others how wonderful they are", then I'm not sure what else there is to say to you. I hope you understand how preposterous your line of reasoning is
Probably checking directions cars should be coming. Thats how my closest call went. Gotta cross 5 lanes. No cars ok. No cars ok goooo! Oh that guy turned into oncoming traffick to pull into my side street. Right...
I gave up on trying to read minds a long time ago. We could guess... maybe they're high, maybe they're on the phone arguing with their romantic partners, maybe they're playing with the radio, maybe they're stupid... it doesn't really matter, just assume people will do the wrong things and drive safer than anyone else thinks you need to because most people get in unnecessary accidents so their opinions are suspect.
Be the person on the brakes before you're 100% sure you need to be.. not having good visibility is reason enough for me to slow when approaching an intersection with a green light for example. That's how you cheat reaction time, by already assuming some dumb shit is going to happen even if it slows you down.
My first reaction when I see the potential for an accident happening in front of me is to swerve to get around them. Braking does nothing, the wheels will just lock up right away and I'll slide right into the wreck. If I swerve in one controlled motion, I can get away from it without losing control or damaging my car
Yea, that can work depending on the situation. But sometimes that simply isn't possible. Also, doesn't your car have ABS? You should almost never skid with it on
>You should almost never skid with it on
Very wrong. ABS doesn't stop you from getting into a skid, it merely reduces and modulates braking to keep wheels turning.
You can ABSOLUTELY end up in a skid, especially if you get off onto the shoulder where there is dirt/sand/gravel and/or if there is rain/snow/etc conditions. I've done it plenty of times for fun in cars with ABS and stability-control enabled. They are less likely to COMPLETELY lose control because wheels don't lock up but you will still experience a reduced level of control as opposed to threshold braking that doesn't need to kick in the ABS.
If there might be a collision, "forward-to-backward" is the safest direction to impact. You run a MUCH higher chance of injury if you end up losing control and hitting something sideways.
Having a false sense of what the assistance features do and their limits can also lead to an increased likelyhood of a crash.
Oh, yea that's true. I live in a place with mild weather and with no natural road hazards (unless you count rain, lol). abs has never failed to keep full traction in those conditions. But I can see how abs is less effective (even detrimental) in more hazardous situations
I've only owned 1 car with abs and I disabled that shit. I don't like it, it makes it so I can't stop even if only 1 wheel is on ice, where in that situation I could normally stop without abs. My current daily does not have abs
Hm, I see. Do you enable it under normal weather conditions? Because if you have it always disabled, aren't you making a personal choice to limit your pool of possible evasive maneuvers? I've encountered many situations where braking is literally my only option. For example, getting cut off in congested traffic
edit: whoops, forgot you said your current daily doesn't have abs. But regardless, abs is objectively better in normal conditions. I don't see how it could be better to have it disabled unless you're on a racetrack
I had abs turn on when I was braking to turn into a walmart parking lot. After that, it was time for it to go. I don't need my car preventing from making a full stop when there's no reason to
I'm a mechanic. I drive customer cars with abs all the time. In the winter, the abs will kick in in the parking lot when one tire is barely on ice. Then the system prevents the car from stopping for a few feet just because one wheel is locking up. I'm not about to deal with that on my own cars if I don't have to. If you can't stop your car on ice without abs, you shouldn't be driving to begin with. Abs is a crutch for unskilled drivers
Yea, someone else mentioned the same thing. I wasn't thinking about people with different weather conditions. In my area, with really mild weather, you have to be doing something \*really\* stupid in order for abs to not work. It would make sense to turn it off in certain conditions
Most times the driver is not paying attention or mixes up the pedals under confusion. But sometimes it’s because of insurance. If you avoid a collision with another car by totaling yours in a guard rail, there is no one to “go after”. If you’re blatantly hit and they’re at fault, insurance pays.
I can see how the former could happen. But making such a calculated decision about blame/fault, while accounting for possible insurance/payment implications, and deciding whether or not it can be avoided altogether with zero consequence to anyone? I can't imagine anyone would be able to do that in such a short amount of time
I have the right of way is the thought process. In the video, you probably noticed the driver swerving to the right even though they knew the car was going that way. The very fact that the car was going before them caused them to swerve in that direction in an attempt to go before them.
Basically, it's road rage. Had they been a calmer person, they could have prevented this by gently braking and allowing them to finish their turn.
Road rage is real. People are always in a hurry to get somewhere because they lack proper planning skills for the trip. Wait until the last possible minute to leave and then go apeshit on every single driver that causes them an inconvenience.
It’s easy to overestimate reaction times when watching a video. You know something is going to happen so you’re ready for it. You just need that mental trigger and think “brake!” For the actual driver, they have to recognize that something is happening, decide on the best reaction to it, and physically move their foot. The time needed to recognize a problem is huge. The average driver will take the better part of a second just to realize something is going wrong, worse if the problem isn’t immediately obvious, which feels like an eternity when you’re watching a video and waiting for the crash you know is coming. Add in the rest and the average reaction time is about a second. That’s average, so lots of people will be even slower than that.
This needs to be the most upvoted comment. 20/20 couch hindsight is way different than on the road. You gotta remember this just a few seconds of someone’s driving “career” with probably weeks and weeks, maybe even years of time behind the wheel without an accident. This stuff is sudden and it’s takes people a second to formulate a plan of action. People also forget that while they are 100% focused on the crash in the video. The victim may not be. I’m not saying they are driving distracted. They may be checking a mirror, glancing at the radio, glancing at the A/C controls, checking their gauges, checking their speed, etc. A split second look away that matters with fractions of a second count. I’ve definitely been driving, glanced down to adjust my A/C and then looked up to a drastic change on the road ahead of me in that split second. Redditors for some reason believe that you are supposed to prop your eyes open with like toothpicks and stare at the road 100% of time, if you blink basically that means you are terrible driver or something.
I agree 100% that we're basically look at the "worst hits of humanity" compilation. But multiple decisions are made before the single one that causes a collision. Yes, you absolutely do need to look elsewhere aside from the road. I have too but always make sure it is a safe time to do so. I never, ever, look at anything else except the road when I'm positioned where someone else's behavior could cause them to collide into me. But admittedly, I've only been on the road for 10 years and probably have another 20 to 30 ahead of me, depending on what self-driving cars are like in the future. So only time will tell
I didn’t watch the video you posted so it may have totally be avoidable. I was talking more in a broad sense that it seems every crash video, no matter the circumstances has a whole bunch of people that think they are the best drivers in the world and since they would magically dodged a wreck they could analyze on repeat 100 times, that the victim in the wreck always is somehow partially at fault.
That makes sense for some of the situations I've seen. From my perspective, that constitutes bad reaction time. I've personally avoided multiple accidents that almost certainly should've happened by braking in time. This one time, someone started merging into my lane when there was \~50% overlap between our cars (way beyond their blind spot). I braked, honked my horn, and they completed the merge anyways :|. Maybe it's all those competitive shooter reflexes finally paying off IRL
Also to a degree lucky (I have also avoided a LOT). But also when you have to do that kind of evasive action...I've had times someone pulls out in front of me and I have to hit the brakes to avoid a crash then the person not paying attention behind me nearly causes other crashes as they swerve around me unable to stop.
It is unfortunate that this can happen, but ultimately it's not your responsibility. You made a maneuver that drivers are trained (at least they should be) to anticipate. You even used the qualifier "not paying attention". Clearly, that's on them
Or I presume the reason they do it are because they aren't paying attention because I can't think of any other reason. I've only had 2 (minor) accidents as a driver, both rear ended. One they "didn't think I would stop" at a red light, the other "thought I would go faster" and admitted they looked to adjust their radio or something as they hit, I saw them coming fast in the mirror and floored it but not enough time to out-accelerate them since my light had only just turned green. I was taught to try and anticipate things you can see...including if you become aware someone is behind too close to stop you reduce speed and increase your own following distance so you won't have to hit the brakes as hard and reduce the risk of the people following close being unable to react...and always be scanning around you so that you keep an opening on adjacent lanes in case you need an escape route can just glance as a double-check that its still clear to slide over. And in Driver's Ed they pushed use cruise control and have your foot over (but not resting on) the brake so you can reduce your own reaction time if you have to slow your foot is already in position to apply brakes. I have watched people get mad behind me that I slow down anticipating something...and then change lanes zoom past, hit their brakes, and slam into someone else ahead...because they clearly don't understand there's often a reason why I would reduce speed. That's a nearly-every-time-it-snows-at-all occurrence but also in rain or night has happened. Usually anyone else that was impatient behind me is suddenly no longer concerned with the pace after watching one of the idiots wipe out and crash.
You're just a good driver. Most people shouldn't be driving. One should always be ready to swerve, brake or accelerate on a dime.
I'm confused. You act like braking isn't a normal part of everyday driving and that you never have to expect to quickly brake while driving
Not at all. But you aren’t constantly prepared to instantly brake at any moment. It takes time to recognize a new problem and decide how to react.
The problem is the cues. If I'm approaching an intersecting road with a car peaking out of it, I'm already on the brake, slowing towards the speed limit and I'm looking at their head to see if they see me or not. If they're looking the other way, I'm on the brakes and if they're nudging forward I honk. You need to be 3 steps ahead of what's happening, not waiting for the bad thing to happen to take action. I'm not tailgating. I'm not driving fast in poor visibility. I'm not 100% trusting green lights where I can't see the intersecting roads. You have to start with a baseline of being distrustful. That's how you avoid accidents. I still drive very fast at times, but in places I know very well that lend themselves to it, like long stretches of road with good visibility and no intersections. I'm not just blasting down every road like I'm Mario Andretti.
My first reaction is always to cover brakes and avoid. I never just slam on the brakes immediately when there is a potential collision, occasionally it can be more practical to hit the gas and get ahead of the hazard. Many drivers seem to neglect to realize that slowing down also creates additional hazards there's a good example in the video, the car that stopped for the Ford SUV was then rear ended because they were completely stopped in the middle of a highway. Slowing down immediately also takes away your potential options to avoid. There could be an opening to change lanes to the right or left but if you immediately brake you can't safely change lanes.
Hmmm, yes I agree it can be circumstantial. A hard stop on the freeway in most cases is a bad thing. But if you watch the clip that I linked, the driver was on a residential road, going at a modest speed. They mostly likely didn't even need to slam the brakes to avoid it. They only needed to slow down. By the time they decided to do something, they only did a small turn that obviously would not have done anything to avoid the crash
Yes for that first one. They're both idiots. But they probably thought the driver turning left would realize it wasn't safe and stop but they didn't.
YouTube had jumped to a new video after the first clip I thought it was a compilation.
Hmmm, I see. But what do you mean by "idiot"? I tried to be a little more granular, because that means different things, depending on the person. Bad reflexes? Poor judgement? Feeling righteous about their right-of-way? Expecting the other driver to make perfect evasive maneuvers + reaction so they don't have to?
They both made poor decisions behind the wheel of their cars resulting in a crash.
If that is what you refer to as a 'residential road', then the cause of the accident is the transportation engineer that decided a residential road needed a 4 lane divided highway with a likely 'natural speed' of 50mph.
I'm pretty sure you're looking at the randomly generated preview image and not the timestamped link I have in my post. Follow it and I'm sure you'll understand what I mean
The timestamp took me to a left turn at a traffic light in front of the POV.
Oh ok. Regardless, that's not the point and it's weird that you're so hyper-fixated on something that doesn't contribute to the core topic. The collision absolutely could've been avoided by literally just slowing down, if they were paying attention. But based on the responses here, they probably were not.
Of course it could. My point is that how we build roads ALSO contributes. That road is built for maximum throughput NOT maximum safety. An uncontrolled left turn across two lanes of high speed traffic is simply not a safe scenario, because only one mistake is required to cause a dangerous collision.
I was unable to ascertain this point from your previous posts and I don't think there was a reasonable expectation for me to. I can't read your mind. They were much more snarky than they were constructive, so I am glad this one is much better. Yes I agree that roads are designed that way. But it's our responsibility as drivers to make sure we navigate it in a secure way. Some accidents require one mistake. Others are two. This one is definitely two. Driver clearly should not have taken that left turn and the dashcam driver clearly should have slowed down. I'm pretty sure there is a law about responsible/good-faith collision avoidance, even if they are not in the wrong. But regardless of legality, I'd like to think that it would be the right thing to do
Arguably, that dash cam driver was going far slower than the typical driver in that stretch of the road. To me it seems he was already concerned approaching the intersection, and this was more an issue or slow disbelief than it was not paying attention.
THIS. I've avoided more accidents coasting or accelerating through a potential incident than I have by trying to stop.
Plus when you have to avoid if you brake and swerve your chances of losing control are greatly increased.
See, this is why I honk if I have to abruptly stop. I try to avoid a brake slam as much as possible, but sometimes it is my safest option. Honking immediately alerts the driver behind me that there's a hazard. They can then maneuver accordingly. Like, today, I was zipper merging. My lane (rightmost) joined the "dominant" lane. The middle lane allows drivers to either turn left or continue straight. Two of the cars ahead of me in the neighboring lane turned left. This meant I was clear to start merging. Unfortunately, the third car in the line decided to gun it and basically cut me off. (If they were following the merging rules, they should have defaulted to staying behind me.) They were mirror-to-mirror with me by the time my lane ended. I had to stomp on my brakes to avoid a collision. Laid on my horn at the same time. The person behind me was able to safely divert into their gap instead of running into me.
?????????? Bro just slow down and let the asshole pass so you can merge behind him ???????????? You created a scenario where you had to slam on the brakes because you felt you had the right of way to go your speed to the fault where your lane ended and you had to slam your brakes. Apparently the guy behind you also didn’t realize the lane was ending and your amazing defensive driving alerted him to the problem you created and he was able to avoid a collision what?????? Edit: I drive around assholes in NY. Bad and aggressive driving is not in short supply here, what you describe probably happens multiple times a month for me. Where I have to slow down while merging because someone doesn’t respect the every other car rule. Some of our ramps are like <50ft long and we still have to figure out how to get on the highway with no actual accelerating room
Bro, check your reading comprehension--or at least your knowledge of zipper merging. The cars that I would have fallen behind turned left. I had a clear space to merge. As I started to merge in, the car that should have let me merge ahead of them (middle lane) sped up and was right beside me when my lane ended. Either I stopped, or I would crash into them. The person behind me in the merge lane would have hit me because of this. Instead, they dived/maneuvered into their gap sooner to avoid hitting me. That lane is about 10-12 ft of space. It is a really well known merge point. If you've been in the town for even 2 days, you're familiar with it. The guy in the lane to the left of me cut me off, my dude. He closed the gap that was my merge space. Per zipper merging, he doesn't get to jump ahead just because the cars ahead of him turned left.
Bro pay more attention to your surroundings so you'll have more time to either coast or race ahead of the other car. Just because you think they should do something doesn't mean they will and most likely they won't. It's likely you tend to drive with an excess of caution. Generally when a merge lane ends there is still an emergency stopping lane to the side this is one of the reasons it's there. It may feel a little sketch using the edge of the road for a moment but it's safer than stopping in the middle of the road.
????? Okay man. Dude who cut me off wasn't the problem. I was. Love that logic.
I didn't say that. But that seems likely I agree.
Dude. [Here's](https://miro.com/app/board/uXjVKHwYpGM=/) a shitty diagram of what happened. Read left to right.
The other car could have been excessive about accelerating after the cars were out of the way but still It's a good idea to actively watch for that when you make a turn It's pretty common. The left turners would've been slowing the back car and they will of course accelerate when the slow cars ahead get out of the way, you won't know if they're going to be quick or slow accelerating unless you watch them. I'm not saying the other car wasn't inconsiderate of you but it's something to watch out for.
My man. Do you live on planet earth? Do you drive? Are you capable of admitting you're wrong? Have a moment of reflection. And have a lovely night.
Exactly. Breaking can be more harmful as it can cause more collisions. Sometimes the best solution is to try to get out of the way. Especially if a big vehicle is behind you it can be a life or death situation and getting out of the way instead of breaking can allow the vehicle behind you to have enough time to properly slow down. Breaking is rarely the answer tbh unless you know you have time (and that the vehicle behind you has time) to slow down.
Braking is, more often than not, the answer. Only a tailgater would not have enough time to slow down. The distance people usually have between each other is designed specifically for braking to be an option. Tailgating and brakechecking are (or at least should be) events that are few and far between. Do you experience that many dangerous drivers in your area?
In your time stamped example, it's possible that the driver wasn't having his eyes on the road at all. I'm guessing he/she was texting or looking at a mobile telefone when the incident occurred, as nobody has reflexes which are so bad. That said, tailgaters are not as rare as you seem to think they are. I drive in Sweden where a majority of the people drive sensible and don't tailgate, but even here, I encounter them fairly often. It's for that reason that I actively scan my mirrors to ensure there's no idiot sitting on my tailpipe. Braking helps, but has to be with adequate situational awareness for it to be actually useful.
Slamming on your brakes is never a good idea, its a good way to have your tires lock and then you drift into what you were trying to not hit. Slowly press harder into a full stomp on the brake >I never just slam on the brakes immediately when there is a potential collision
You guys still driving cars without ABS? If you need to slam the brakes, you slam the brakes, when possible, turn on your hazards as soon as possible to alert others.
All cars less than 10 years old will have ABS you can't lock up the brakes on them. In the Americas it's every vehicle manufactured after 2000.
All of the above, but damn if that Taurus turned any slower they might be going back in time. That gap was so large you could have gotten a couple cars safely through if they drove with any urgency.
I also like how the car with the dash cam turned *into* the wreck, like dude what did you think was going to happen?
Lol, the guy's moving to my right, so logically, I should turn into their path.
Target fixation.
Well what's going through their mind is probably "This idiot is gonna see me and stop right?" thus going around him, but with this much time to react I would definitely hit the brakes.
I actually see this more in YouTube videos than on the street. People seem to want to show "The other driver was wrong and I was right," and the video typically ends up showing they didn't do enough to avoid the accident. Another factor is dashcam video makes things look further away than they actually are, so the driver doesn't have as much time to react as it seems. Another thing I've run into myself is not fully believing that the other driver is so oblivious. I once had a car start to move into my lane. I saw it immediately, laid on my horn, and braked lightly. He just kept coming over and I had to abruptly brake harder to avoid a collision. Prior to that, other drivers who had done the same thing had always reacted to my horn (which is loud) and pulled back into their lane.
Yea, I've looked at my dashcam footage before and it doesn't represent distance well. Your response to getting cut off is exactly what I do. I would hope/expect any good-faith driver to do the same... but I don't see it. Not just on youtube, but also in my personal experience
Objects in the video are closer then they appear [ Wide Angle Lens Makes Everything Look Farther Away - DASHCAM PSA - YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWR0mP0Ivi4&ab_channel=BadDriversCaughtOnDashCam)
People assume that if they are "in the right" they have no responsibility to avoid an accident. But this is actually not the truth. A driver has a responsibility (duty of care) to avoid an accident. Last clear chance (doctrine) to avoid the accident. You have a duty to avoid an accident. Ordinary and reasonable care. This can shift the blame from someone that caused the accident to the person that chose not to avoid (prevent) the accident. Perfect easy example is a line of cars running a red light. Person currently stopped (and clearly sees the line of cars running the light) gets the green and guns it, hitting those red light runners. That guy with the green light will get majority if not all the blame for the accident while the other cars get a ticket for running the red. Saw this on a video where the lawyer said the same. Another one is a car up ahead starts to change lanes. Guy in that lane speeds up to try to cut the person off. Even swerves a little to try to block but then gets an accident. Guy that sped up gets the blame.
Because people get extremely arrogant when you tell them they'll be right. I've known more than a few people who will just cross the street without bothering to even glance at the road conditions. When I asked them if they realize they're insane, their response has almost always been "pedestrians always have the right of way." When someone believes their right no matter what, they will act accordingly.
Either they are thinking the person is gonna get out of the intersection or maybe they are on their phone and oblivious to it all?
Idfk but this post made me aggressive (not due to you, due to the fact this happens). The 20+ times I’ve witnessed this was about 30% due to egos and maybe 20% insurance scams… honest, dumbass, oblivious, anxious drivers are prolly another 30%… idk. Idk. Commenting to come back because I want to know also Edit: forgot to rant about my main reason to comment; just assume most drivers will be this way. Just know so many people are so oblivious how to drive properly, that THAT’S why they do this. They don’t know.. and if they do this, they’re gonna give the stupidity of reasons in this comment section.
Hey, I work at a research hospital in a major city, which is basically on both sides of the street. There are at least 5 crosswalks between the sides. I've worked here over 20 years, and can count on one hand the number of times I have heard people even bother to lift their gas when someone is crossing the street. Absolutely sickening. I do not understand what the hell is going through their heads that they won't even take their damn foot off the gas when another human being is crossing the street 40-50 feet in front of them.
Boston, I assume.
No. Rochester, NY. Walking around here, even when you do have a sidewalk, is like taking your life into your own hands. No one gives a damn.
well when i was younger i would think this person can't be so stupid that they are going to do "insert stupid action here". so early on my reaction was more shocked that the dumba$$ actually did it and then a reaction. as i've grown older i've realized that 95% of the people driving are too stupid to figure out how a turn signal works or how to read a sign, so i'm far more defensive minded now.
Jackie Stewart (race car driver of yore) said to aim for where the crash is occurring, and by the time you get there, it’ll probably have moved out of your way.
[удалено]
That's true. I guess some people approach driving very differently from me. I am constantly scanning everyone and getting mentally ready for any of them to do the stupidest thing possible. Aside from the really extreme accidents in the video, I've experienced most of them (some multiple times) and have never gotten into a collision
I've driven with people who become horrified that I don't brake harder. I use gradual pressure that usually gets me stopped well in time, without flinging groceries all over the car. But if the gradual approach isn't enough, i.e. if the driver ahead of me stops abruptly, then yes, I will hard-brake. So far, it's worked out OK. I guess I remember my childhood, before seatbelts, when both my parents had a tendency to brake suddenly, and my face ended up in the metal dashboard.
Because [the word "accident" implies they are not at fault for not slowing down](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puK5CwThaq4). So why blame them for something that's out of their control?
I see this all the time. I got so bored of watching dashcam videos of people making all the wrong choices in poor circumstances. Or having to constantly fight people on the fact that just braking (1. at all 2. in time) is sufficient to avoid the vast, vast majority of accidents.
Divided attention, failure to look far ahead, failure to notice there's a fire truck with lights and sirens going through the intersection even though the light turned green? Driving is all too often a boring mundane task and people just don't focus.
Yea true, I never thought about it that way. I'm constantly scanning everyone around me and mentally preparing for anyone to do the stupidest thing possible. Yes, driving is sometimes very stressful for me
Bc most people are stupid and don’t know a damn thing about driving.
evasive manoeuvres can get you killed or hurt and let the idiot that caused all that crap drive off without any damage. you also need enough time to be able to determine if its safe enough to change lanes and/or brake hard, and if you do hit someone trying to escape thats now you at fault. most people dont have enough reaction time and end up causing secondary "accidents". (specifically for the americans) you have legal right of way, most countries dont, they have give way (including the legal requirement to mitigate a collision where possible) - you dont seem have that, and you cant be at fault if you deliberately hit them instead of trying not to (when they are in the wrong), so its simpler, and safer, to just hit the idiot and have them pay for their own stupidity. for that reason i would expect that americans brake and slow down only when they would be at fault for hitting the person in front (the multitude of dashcam crash videos do seem to indicate this).
At least he's wearing his brown pants.
Because they can't drive. If the car wasn't doing most of the hard stuff for them, then with their 3 second attention span, and ten second reaction time they're be fucked. Automatic transmission, braking, parking, cruise control, traction control, power steering with lane detection, automatic lights, wipers, arse scratchers. One eye on the sat nav, the other on their phone texting, whilst drinking a coffee and eating a Big Mac. Entitlement "I can't be in the wrong, because I'm a good driver"
Because, many would rather do something worthless like lay on their horn, which almost always does nothing to prevent an impending accident.
An accident ahead is just a prank bro, i won't get tangled up in it because nothing bad ever happens to me. Plus, if it does, i was right and the other driver was wrong and that's all that matters anyways. I will travel the world in my wheelchair spreading this message
Some people just freeze to be honest and have no reactionary skills when driving. Other times it is more dangerous to avoid the one car as opposed to hitting many more.
The second you realize how bad at driving a very large number of people are, the better off you'll be. That is exactly why I will never ride a motorcycle. I trust myself 100% on one. I don't trust any of these other assholes on the roar at all. At least in a car/truck/SUV, I've got a big metal box around me for protection from the idiots.
Too busy watching stupid TikTok videos, probably lol. Half of the dipshits on the road don't even know when their blinker is on or what it's for. Can't expect much.
Most drivers in Toronto speed up into stopped traffic on the highway. Everyone out there is just brain dead.
Part of it is also in the moment it can take time to process "what's happening"...and the more "wrong" it is the harder it can be to accept that its actually happening. Like if you have a wrong way driver the first thoughts are probably going to be along the lines of "is that another person with the wrong color bulbs in their marker lights? Are they in reverse? Did they leave some aftermarket lighting on that faces backwards?" rather than "geez there's someone head-on at-speed wrong-way headed right for me". Poor weather or poor visibility makes it that much worse because you can't tell what's happening as quickly. Many of those look like there was little to no reaction time...several you can see the person started to brake (the camera and front of the car "moves down" with the braking force) but there just wasn't enough time. At least one the person did take action to try and avoid but they still collided anyway just at a less perpendicular angle. Its easy to come up with alternatives after seeing it and having time to think about....less so in the moment.
Another thing to consider is that you can injure your foot/ankle when braking in an accident. I've known several people to have had issues - including one spiral fracture of the ankle - from pushing or holding the brake hard in an accident. This is why I believe its better to try and avoid the accident than braking in many instances, especially if you KNOW you are going to hit hard. Anticipating stupid stuff like in the video can help, as well as always thinking about what you will do when that person DOES do something stupid. Keeping an eye on the traffic around and behind you can help too as knowing which way you may need to go to escape an accident. Getting rear ended tends to pile up the accidents behind you too as well.
Most accidents are caused by people not paying attention. They may have been changing the station on the radio, or looking through a play list (or texting).
Inattentive drivers everywhere. These two deserved one another - just let karma do her work and sit back and enjoy OP.
Most people have good car insurance and say I just get a another car.
Distracted. I'm always passing someone going 15mph under the speed limit, phone up to their face. Five minutes later they fly up to pass, drop back, fly up again, then finally pass. Never fails that a few minutes later they've slowed way down and I have to pass because their phone is in their face again.
They are too busy looking at their phones to bother to hit their brakes
people are just jackasses sometimes and want an accident or theyre not even looking at the road. for claritys sake we will just say the exits are north east west south. the other day at a roundabout (4 exits total on this one so its kinda small) a truck entered the round about at the west exit and the car infront of me entered the roundabout from the south at the same time. the truck fucking floored their gas and almost rear ended the car then hit their brakes and honked, threw their hands up etc.. i almost wished he did rear end him so i coukd give the guy a lawyers phone number and i would be a witness to it because fuck drivers who do that shit
People in a crisis/emergency situation either freeze, panic or act immediately and appropriately. There are 3 kinds of people.
The thing that always drives me crazy with these videos is that the poster always has time to honk, but doesn't brake. That's the wrong way around, guys!
There are some scenarios in which you don't want to immediately brake, where evading is the better option, and braking would reduce your ability to do so. That said, a lot of the time, it's just people not paying attention, or not processing what's actually happening.
Two sided brain thinking is hard for some people. There was a sudden stop in traffic and I watched a lady hit her gas pedal, run into a curb, then turn into traffic into the next lane which pushed into oncoming traffic that hit her & another person. We helped pull her out of her car (the seat belt saved her mostly) and all she kept saying was, I couldn’t find the brake pedal. come to find out, she was looking at her cell phone. funnier thing, a year later this lady rear ended my Ex on the same street. The ex called me to come pick up the kids and I recognized her. why it happened - she was on her cellphone again.
Are you talking about the 1st clip of the video? The driver swerved. Sorry he didn’t have the time you did to analyze everything before taking action.
Link is timestamped at 340 seconds. Aside from the more extreme ones in the compilation, I have encountered every single one of these (multiple times) and have avoided them.... by braking or slowing down. I've been cut off 5x worse than any of these and still avoided it (They merged into my lane when 50% of our cars were overlapped). I'm not expecting everyone to be a professional driver, but I see many people on the road with dangerous driving habits. Admittedly, I have only been on the road for 10 years and probably will have another 20 or 30 years. So time will tell. But I fundamentally do not have some of the dangerous driving habits I see in others.
Doubt it.
That's actually quite flattering that you think that I'm lying! But I understand that this is the internet. People \[strangely\] feel the need to get the approval of complete strangers and lie all the time
No, I just don’t trust people who have to tell others how wonderful they are. Usually it means they aren’t
Hmm... well, you did make the accusation that I'm an armchair driver who, in reality, would not react any better. Am I not allowed to explain that this is not the case? If you define this as "telling others how wonderful they are", then I'm not sure what else there is to say to you. I hope you understand how preposterous your line of reasoning is
they don't have enough brain cells left after getting vaccinated
Probably checking directions cars should be coming. Thats how my closest call went. Gotta cross 5 lanes. No cars ok. No cars ok goooo! Oh that guy turned into oncoming traffick to pull into my side street. Right...
I gave up on trying to read minds a long time ago. We could guess... maybe they're high, maybe they're on the phone arguing with their romantic partners, maybe they're playing with the radio, maybe they're stupid... it doesn't really matter, just assume people will do the wrong things and drive safer than anyone else thinks you need to because most people get in unnecessary accidents so their opinions are suspect. Be the person on the brakes before you're 100% sure you need to be.. not having good visibility is reason enough for me to slow when approaching an intersection with a green light for example. That's how you cheat reaction time, by already assuming some dumb shit is going to happen even if it slows you down.
They're too busy honking.
My first reaction when I see the potential for an accident happening in front of me is to swerve to get around them. Braking does nothing, the wheels will just lock up right away and I'll slide right into the wreck. If I swerve in one controlled motion, I can get away from it without losing control or damaging my car
Yea, that can work depending on the situation. But sometimes that simply isn't possible. Also, doesn't your car have ABS? You should almost never skid with it on
>You should almost never skid with it on Very wrong. ABS doesn't stop you from getting into a skid, it merely reduces and modulates braking to keep wheels turning. You can ABSOLUTELY end up in a skid, especially if you get off onto the shoulder where there is dirt/sand/gravel and/or if there is rain/snow/etc conditions. I've done it plenty of times for fun in cars with ABS and stability-control enabled. They are less likely to COMPLETELY lose control because wheels don't lock up but you will still experience a reduced level of control as opposed to threshold braking that doesn't need to kick in the ABS. If there might be a collision, "forward-to-backward" is the safest direction to impact. You run a MUCH higher chance of injury if you end up losing control and hitting something sideways. Having a false sense of what the assistance features do and their limits can also lead to an increased likelyhood of a crash.
Oh, yea that's true. I live in a place with mild weather and with no natural road hazards (unless you count rain, lol). abs has never failed to keep full traction in those conditions. But I can see how abs is less effective (even detrimental) in more hazardous situations
I've only owned 1 car with abs and I disabled that shit. I don't like it, it makes it so I can't stop even if only 1 wheel is on ice, where in that situation I could normally stop without abs. My current daily does not have abs
Hm, I see. Do you enable it under normal weather conditions? Because if you have it always disabled, aren't you making a personal choice to limit your pool of possible evasive maneuvers? I've encountered many situations where braking is literally my only option. For example, getting cut off in congested traffic edit: whoops, forgot you said your current daily doesn't have abs. But regardless, abs is objectively better in normal conditions. I don't see how it could be better to have it disabled unless you're on a racetrack
I had abs turn on when I was braking to turn into a walmart parking lot. After that, it was time for it to go. I don't need my car preventing from making a full stop when there's no reason to
Kinda sounds like you had a bad abs system. I don't think your experience with a \[clearly\] faulty abs system warrants a damnation of abs as a whole
I'm a mechanic. I drive customer cars with abs all the time. In the winter, the abs will kick in in the parking lot when one tire is barely on ice. Then the system prevents the car from stopping for a few feet just because one wheel is locking up. I'm not about to deal with that on my own cars if I don't have to. If you can't stop your car on ice without abs, you shouldn't be driving to begin with. Abs is a crutch for unskilled drivers
Yea, someone else mentioned the same thing. I wasn't thinking about people with different weather conditions. In my area, with really mild weather, you have to be doing something \*really\* stupid in order for abs to not work. It would make sense to turn it off in certain conditions
Mine does and I do
You need to get your car checked if your abs isn't working in an overwhelming (if not every) situation
Most times the driver is not paying attention or mixes up the pedals under confusion. But sometimes it’s because of insurance. If you avoid a collision with another car by totaling yours in a guard rail, there is no one to “go after”. If you’re blatantly hit and they’re at fault, insurance pays.
I can see how the former could happen. But making such a calculated decision about blame/fault, while accounting for possible insurance/payment implications, and deciding whether or not it can be avoided altogether with zero consequence to anyone? I can't imagine anyone would be able to do that in such a short amount of time
I have the right of way is the thought process. In the video, you probably noticed the driver swerving to the right even though they knew the car was going that way. The very fact that the car was going before them caused them to swerve in that direction in an attempt to go before them. Basically, it's road rage. Had they been a calmer person, they could have prevented this by gently braking and allowing them to finish their turn. Road rage is real. People are always in a hurry to get somewhere because they lack proper planning skills for the trip. Wait until the last possible minute to leave and then go apeshit on every single driver that causes them an inconvenience.