undefined | Better HN

0 pointssamwillis3y ago0 comments

The other day I was driving behind a car on a country road, he did an emergency stop to avoid a rabbit in the road. I avoided hitting him, I stopped about 2m from him because I was careful to leave enough space. If I had hit him I'm sure the insurance companies would have placed blame on me and it would have been my insurance that paid out. But ultimately it would have been his "fault" for doing something utterly unpredictable and dangerously stupid.

If it had been a large deer, of course he should have stopped, at that point it's the safety of the people inside the car.

In law for insurance purposes it needs to be clear cut, person behind is almost always at fault. But that doesn't mean they are the cause of the accident in all cases. There is nuance to these things, and part of that is that braking for a rabbit, or using Level 2 automation, is increasing the chance of an accident happing on the road.

If the way you drive increases the risk of someone driving into the back of you, even if they haven't left enough space, you are at fault in my mind.

0 comments

dkrich3y ago

This reasoning makes very little sense to me. Why drive assuming that it will be a rabbit most of the time and not a child or a deer or whatever you deem worthy of stopping for?

If the possibility exists that a driver in front of you may stop suddenly why not always leave a minimum amount of space for a safe stop considering there is virtually no downside to doing so?

tpxl3y ago

> This reasoning makes very little sense to me.

The reasoning doesn't make sense because it is applied retroactively. The parent poster doesn't want to take responsibility for their unsafe driving practice and tries to place the blame on the other driver.

Cars suddenly stopping in front of you isn't some unpredictable rare event. You are told this as part of the licensing procedure, and this is the reason minimum safety distance exists. The solution is obvious and known to any licensed driver. As such, it is unreasonable and unacceptable, to not follow the minimum safety distance.

samwillisOP3y ago

Thats not my point. You should, and I do, always leave enough space to stop, but not everyone does.

Being a safe driver is being aware that other people, including the people behind you, may not be leaving enough space. Suddenly stopping for a rabbit, from a speed of 50mph, is f-ing stupid and massively increasing the risk of a serious accident on the road.

Using a Level 2 automation that can randomly stop for no reason is not safe driving, you are increasing the chances that someone who is too close drives into the back of you.

Just because someone else is driving unsafely doesn't absolve you of the responsibility of being aware of that and not driving safely yourself.

rjmunro3y ago

You should be able to stop at any time for any reason and not worry about the car behind crashing in to you. They should leave enough space. A rabbit is a very good reason. Maybe it's not a rabbit, maybe it's a rabbit-shaped rock that would cause serious damage to your vehicle, causing you to leave the road and die.

somethingreen3y ago

As long as there are valid reasons to do an emergency stop, the actual reason should be irrelevant for the person driving behind. You should always assume it is a child chasing their ball or something and it will be your car pushing the car that managed to properly stop into that child if you rear-end it. There just isn't a good reason to put yourself in a situation like that and it is perfectly in your power to avoid it.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse