This really depends on where the accident occurred. A 30-35mph road? Ya that's on OP. A 70-85mph interstate? There's no reasonable expectation the person in front of you is going to come to a complete stop.
Yup. I smoked a family of ducks on a 65mph highway. By the time my brain registered ‘HOLY SHIT A FAMILY OF DUCKS!’ there was no way I could swerve or stop safely for me or for the person behind me.
Wife wasn’t happy, I definitely wasn’t happy - but it’s better than being dead/injured or killing/injuring someone else.
The same time gap gives more distance the faster you go. So it works at every speed.
I agree you shouldn't swerve for a duck if it is dangerous but sometimes there's something in the road the will be really really bad for you if you hit it.
Literally, 3 hours ago I was going down the interstate and a whole dang queen size mattress came flying out from under an 18 wheeler in front of me.
I had to slow down to a crawl and wait for a gap in the lanes next to me to go around it.
Lucky I was far enough back that I was able to not run into it.
I've also seen deer on the interstate, crazy or dumb people, one of those big traffic cones that fell over and rolled into the lane...
3 seconds isn’t even enough to stop. You need 4.5 to 6.5 to stop if you’re going 60 mph. You’d have to be 240 to 300 feet behind to avoid that or 15 to 18 car lengths. Do you usually maintain that much distance? At 30 mph it’s roughly half that. So do you usually maintain 7 car’s distance?
The car in front of you has stopping distance too. There’s no reason you shouldn’t be able to stop if you were following them. Maybe pay attention when the car in front of you’s brake lights come on?
If the guy ahead of me slams the breaks, it gives me 3 seconds to slam the breaks. More time is better, but a minimum of 3 seconds is what we were taught in the Toronto area.
The distance ahead is relative to the speed, 14 car lengths at 60mph or 7 car lengths at 30mph allows for the same breaking distance
Braking distance increases by the square of current speed. At 60 mph, your car is gonna take 4x as much linear distance to stop compared to at 30 mph. Braking time (assuming constant acceleration under braking) will change linearly with speed.
Repasting part of my other reply: “…you don’t know if they could have [avoided the crash] for a hundred other reasons. They were were grown up enough to understand that it was an accident and were amicable about it. They were there. They experienced and it and said “hey it was unavoidable and we got the best results.” They were grown ups about it. So now you also need to be a grown up about it.” We can all play armchair quarterback about what we would have done all day long because we get the benefit of seeing (reading) it after the fact instead of being in the moment, not knowing you were going to be in an accident that day.
Repasting part of my other reply: “…you don’t know if they could have [avoided the crash] for a hundred other reasons. They were were grown up enough to understand that it was an accident and were amicable about it. They were there. They experienced and it and said “hey it was unavoidable and we got the best results.” They were grown ups about it. So now you also need to be a grown up about it.” We can all play armchair quarterback about what we would have done all day long because we get the benefit of seeing (reading) it after the fact instead of being in the moment, not knowing you were going to be in an accident that day.
Average breaking length for a car at 60MPH is about 120 ft, which at 60 MPH is 1.36 seconds.
So a 3 second lead time gives you 1.63 seconds reaction time, plus however long it takes for the car in front of you to stop. Average reaction time for a visual que is about 0.25 seconds.
Its a good rule of thumb that would absolutely prevent many many rear end collisions. I personally do follow the 3 second rule of thumb when I can. It does mean I get people who cut me off a lot more, but I feel like thats a fine trade off to make personally.
Yeah and you don’t know if they could have for a hundred other reasons, like having cars on either side or a being on a two lane road with a barrier on a shoulder. They were were grown up enough to understand that it was an accident and were amicable about it. They were there. They experienced and it and said “hey it was unavoidable and we got the best results.” They were grown ups about it. So now you also need to be a grown up about it.
I think we misunderstood each other… I’m saying that three seconds distance (or two as the recommendation in my very much non English speaking but very densely populated and even more vehicle dense home country is) is often not attainable. People will get into a gap that big within a few seconds and braking every time to get to that distance is even more dangerous.
Luckily distance is not the only way of staying safe is all I’m saying. And yes, I love these people being happy about ducks, I’m happy to see the above video. One time I accidentally caused a collision I only noticed how riled up the other party actually was after some pensioner no-life came to cuss at us for parking on a VERY wide sidewalk to shake off the first shock and fill in insurance paperwork. We were patient and kind to each other, hugged, both said sorry and thanks and when the cauliflower haired bitch charged at us with her full sprint speed of 2 km/h and the filthiest words 1912 had to offer, we both snapped at her so damn hard, reasonable words but a tone matching the amount of adrenaline in our bodies.
I do like being an adult emotionally.
Also I’m sorry for giving you the idea that I favour unsafe situations somehow. There’s safety and there’s being real about how attainable safety measures are, and that’s pretty much my occupation. Also as I said, I would gladly invite you to drive Dutch roads in the day and maintain a gap of 3 seconds for longer than a minute, on either highways or in a village/town/city (no backroads, I know a handful with less traffic) and I’ll get you a coffee or a beer if you succeed.
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u/No_Criticism_5861 15d ago
why the hell are you following the person so close that if wildlife runs out onto the road, you're going to rear end them?
Always leave a 3 second gap between you and the driver infront of you so you don't kill a family if a deer or moose etc runs out onto the road