Sometimes you don’t; there’s times when speeding up may be the better choice to get out of the way. This is why I stay below what I consider my maximum safe speed, so I have the choice to speed up when I need to. This involves leaving plenty of space as well.
Although none of this applies to the break checker here. They were plenty clear to move back over to the right between the merging black SUV and the silver minivan which is way ahead by then. I can only presume that they break checked here just to tell the tailgater who’s boss.
No, look at the video again when they tap their brakes. They had plenty of room to move over. They don’t need to tell the tailgater anything, they should be (as everyone should be) driving defensively and moving out of the way of the aggressive driver. And the lead car’s actions nearly led to a much worse accident involving the other two SUVs and the truck.
“Communicating” with aggressive drivers is a losing proposition as shown here. At least here no one else was harmed because of these two fools’ actions.
It was tight, but if the lead car sped up it’d be fine; the silver minivan was way ahead at that point. It’d be better than getting them hit by the jackass tailgater.
No, he didn’t have plenty of room to move over, which innumerable other commenters have fully covered. And the safe driver, properly using the lane, has no obligation to get out of the way of the dangerous driver illegally tailgating. Your desire to drive recklessly and illegally imposes no requirement on anyone else.
Oftentimes a person is tailgating because they are texting, or doing their hair, or simply daydreaming and not paying attention. The brief flash of brakelights can help by making them notice they have crept too close to the car ahead.
And I am hopeful that this has communicated to the tailgater that he should learn to drive and to drive more carefully. That would be the best communication of all.
The tailgater. Plain and simple. He was tailgating from the moment he was visible in the video - meaning he was tailgating when it was clearly unsafe for the brake-checker to pull into the right lane, what with the person merging INTO TRAFFIC. Everyone who blames the brake-checker is clearly a tailgater.
I have to 100% disagree with you here. Everyone has an obligation and responsibility to keep the roads safe; saying that you don’t have a responsibility or obligation to keep the road safe in spite of dangerous drivers is a stance that lacks empathy for everyone. This sometimes means having to do more because of some asshole is doing something stupid. It’s unfair, and it sucks, but that’s life. This may not be a legal requirement everywhere (although from what it sounds like from what @DonKanalie said it is that way in Germany), but it is most definitely the right thing to do. It is not right to put others behind you in danger because you think telling someone to not follow so close in an ambiguous and startling way will get them to stop. Under almost all circumstances it won’t, and it may make things worse.
Look at the video again. The lead car taps the breaks at thirty seconds, the silver minivan is already about two to four seconds from the black car in the right lane and pulling away rapidly, in the next few seconds it’s way off in the distance. Another four or five seconds with about 5MPH more speed the lead car would be well clear of the black car in the right lane with plenty of space between the black and silver car. Yes. They VERY WELL could have performed a safer maneuver than the reckless stunt they pulled. And, yes, they have a responsibility to keep the road safe. The tailgater nearly hit the two other cars behind them, and this could have all been avoided by that person not being a dick.
I haven’t read all of the comments, so excuse me if I repeat . . . in a situation like that, with steady traffic and somebody tailgating in the vicinity of an onramp, I’d have to put the tailgater at fault. The brake-checker was, I assume, trying to pass safely, allow for traffic merging onto the highway and allow for safe distances between left-lane vehicles before he merged right again. If he merged prematurely, he could accidentally force the car merging onto the highway off the road. If he speeds up, he might put himself at an unsafe rate of speed.
I admit it, I brake-check with highly aggressive tailgaters, typically in an environment where I can’t safely get out of the way, and I’m trying to encourage the tailgater, somehow, to pay attention to what’s going on.
Getting that close to somebody on the highway at high speeds is unforgivable, period. I’m glad they didn’t get hurt, but they should have their license suspended for that one. I’ve had people merge in front of me and behind me with that kind of distance, with police close enough to see it . . . nothing. So, yeah, sometimes we feel like we have to communicate somehow with the idiots out there. Hopefully we can do it safely . . . sheesh . . .
So, even if what you say is true (and as several others have pointed out, in detail, it’s not), the safe driver would have to speed up, over the legal speed limit, and then dive into the right lane between 2 cars. That’s safer? In what universe?
By what right do you demand a safe driver to break the law, dangerously change lanes, in order to get out of the way of, as you describe him, an asshole?
Bottom line, this situation was caused by a driver recklessly tailgating at a high speed. I can’t understand how you blame the safe driver for causing any of this. You cannot demand that another break the law and endanger people simply because you are an impatient asshole or you’ll nearly kill yourself and others, and that’s exactly what you are doing. Ridiculous.
There’s obviously a car that is stopping on the emergency lane near the end of the video, probably to check on the accident. It could safely do so, which wasn’t the case for everyone.
Uh, this one? People merge in between two cars all the time, it’s called changing lanes. You’ve done it, I’ve done it, everyone does. It would have been MUCH safer because it would have avoided this accident! Yes this is hindsight, but that would have avoided it. The silver car was pulling away at a high rate of speed, if it wasn’t safe to pull over to the right lane at that moment, it would have been safe to do so shortly after.
Driving code in at least the states I’ve lived in does permit going over the speed limit to avoid accidents and hazardous situations; and this is granted they were already going at the speed limit. Maybe they were, maybe they weren’t. Neither of us have that information, but going just a bit faster to extricate themselves from the situation was safe and prudent based on the apparent driving conditions. Defensive and safe driving does not mandate that you have to rigidly obey all traffic laws at all times; sometimes they conflict with each other, sometimes they conflict with avoiding danger. But, to be honest, they needed to just not slow down to pass the black car on the right as the silver car was moving quite rapidly away. And, yes, you need to get out of the way of assholes. Like it or not, it’s the best way to say safe in a situation like this. Defensive driving. Brake checking is absolutely not safe or defensive driving. Nor is “communicating” with other drivers via tapping on one’s brakes.
You are really not listening to the points I’m trying to make. The lead car was not being a safe driver. The accident was caused by the tailgater but instigated by the lead car. This isn’t black-and-white here; if the lead driver had not done the juvenile thing of brake checking the tailgater and just got over when they could have there is a high probability that everyone would have been fine. It’s not just or fair that the tailgater gets away with it, but at least it’s safe and there’s the lowest risk to everyone.
I know how frustrating it is to have jackasses on the road get away with pulling dangerous and dumb shit, it’s not good to get yourself caught up in the middle and get angry about things. Just yesterday when I was making an out-of-the-ordinary trip during rush hour I had about 5 people go and cut me off and tailgate me at times when going the speed limit or slower due to traffic conditions (basically keeping up with traffic). And one of them was an aggressive driver. It’s irritating that they get away with it, but I’d rather do that than make the situation more dangerous.
This, here, is a prime example of what can go wrong with innocent intending actions that have deeper consequences. If the tailgater had steered slightly different they may have hit the other two cars, which would have caused the truck to plow into them or veer off to the side of the road, possibly also losing control. Would you think that, if that happened, the break checker was fully in the right then? Even if they could have not added to that accident by not brake checking, now involving three other innocent bystanders? I’m looking for harm reduction here, and increasing the safety of all involved. As I said before, yes it’s the tailgater’s fault; but the break checker had their hand in it too. There is most definitely multiple culpability here.
From what I remember of my First Aid at work course (I was qualified to do first aid at any workplace in the UK until 2009), having more than one person to help is useful. Don’t worry about coordinating people, I’ll handle that.
I would find something that you could help me with. Phoning for an Ambulance. Putting pressure on a wound. Talking to someone who is less injured than the person I am looking after (and having you watch them so you can tell me if they get worse). If there are too many people I can have you get the crowd to move back so I have space to work.
Others have said this already, but … besides the fact that there were cars in the right lane, there was an on ramp, with a vehicle, merging ahead. Either the safe driver had to cut off the merging car or try to slip in between him and the cars already in the right lane. At least 10 people said this already. And the safe driver would have to exceed the speed limit to do this.
We know the safe driver was going at the speed limit. Another poster calculated, using mile markers, that his speed was 69.35 mph. We saw a speed limit sign for 70.
And we’re assuming that the safe driver brake checked the tailgater. Perhaps, since he seems to be a careful driver (driving within speed limit, signaling lane changes), he realized he was about to go over the speed limit and touched his brakes to remain under it.
Bottom line, one driver did everything right – he drove at a safe and legal speed, properly used the passing lane, signaled lane changes – the model of what you want behind the wheel. The other driver was speeding (he had to be, since he caught up with a driver going at the speed limit), he was dangerously tailgating, and, when the car ahead braked, he was unable to control his vehicle and crashed. Defend the asshole all you want – every cop in the world will tell you he is 100% at fault. And they will all also say they wish everybody drove like the driver in the front car. Don’t take my word for it – ask a cop.
The thing is, someone tapping their brakes virtually never causes other cars to completely lose control and spin off the road. People brake all the time, every day without incident. Most people can maintain control of their car when someone brakes in front of them. This is normal. The person driving in the passing lane while passing other cars on the right and keeping clear of the onramp had every right to be there, and while brake checking wasn’t friendly behavior, it wasn’t inherently unsafe behavior. Brake checking was related to the accident for one and only one reason - the tailgater was such a shockingly incompetent driver that they lost control of their car because someone tapped on their brakes. A person who is that bad of a driver is an accident waiting to happen, and pointing fingers at the people unlucky enough to share the road with them is fundamentally wrong.
I don’t give a crap what others are saying. Watch the video again. At 30 seconds. They were past the ramp. The gap between the silver minivan was widening and there was about to be sufficient room in front of the black SUV. Seriously, I’ve rewatched this video about 30 or 40 times to try to gather where the cars were and what they were doing. There was going to be enough space shortly.
They were not safe. Was not. They pulled a stunt. Pulling stunts on the road is not safe; it is the opposite of safe. They had no reason to brake besides trying to “tell the tailgater something.” That’s not a safe thing to do.
I’m using brake check as a shorthand here for using the brake pedal for a short period of time without there being a road condition needing breaking; and that includes slightly going over your desired speed (in that case you let off the gas, sudden speed drops are generally discouraged for speed correction).
No, they didn’t. They added to an unsafe situation by performing an unnecessary maneuver. That is not doing everything right.
They wouldn’t necessarily be 100% at fault. They would have been at fault enough to bear the financial and legal burdens, but they weren’t 100% at fault.
I don’t give a flying fuck what police say. They are not as well versed in law as many seem to think (as we’ve seen through numerous police shootings).
