I agree completely, but the cop admitted to stopping because he thought Omar was going to hit him. So the cop was worried that the car behind him was following too close (barely if you look at the video) and his reaction is to slam on the brakes. He admits it. That’s a reckless driving right there.
I haven’t been brake checked, but I’ve seen it done to others in a fit of road rage. And that was what it was, not braking for a good reason.
(I’ve been driving for 40 years and have never been involved in any type of accident)
ETA, and Omar was able to stop, leaving about 4 feet between the cars.
I’ve been driving 35. The only accident I’ve ever been in was a dumbshit rear-ending me at a stoplight. Yep, she was talking on her phone at the time. Hey, dumbshit, if you can’t see the red light maybe you could see the bright red pick-up filling up your windshield? Hmm?
Said right on the police report “following too close”. Her insurance got to pay for the repairs to my truck as well as to her SUV.
There are also situations where a car may need to swerve into another lane – maybe a kid ran out into the street or something. And if in the course of swerving to avoid killing a kid, the car hit another, I think we can generally agree that the driver wasn’t acting recklessly. But if a car swerves into another lane for no reason, that isn’t justified. Period.
Same thing with brake checking. Yes, there may be a good reason why a car needs to brake suddenly. But braking suddenly for no reason is hazardous and shouldn’t be excused.
The police officer had a half-dozen better ways of dealing with a driver behind him. Jamming on the brakes in hopes of either scaring the other driver, or causing an accident, is terribly unprofessional and is creating a hazard.
As to whether the driver was following too close: I think it is arguable either way whether he deserves a ticket, much like being ticketed for doing 28 in a 25 zone. Maybe by the letter of the law, but any police officer who gives such a ticket is clearly doing it for the sole reason of being a dick.
IMHO, that wasn’t an unusually close following distance–it would barely ping on my NJ driver radar. It’s quite common here, especially while going below 25.
There are far more cars here than in many other states, and there are plenty of aggressive people.
It doesn’t make it legal, but it does seem that that officer was over the top. Maybe he was already upset over some unrelated event.
To put the oncoming driver in peril was reckless, again IMHO.
That seems like an incredibly unsafe and obnoxious way to “pull over” the driver, even if he was tailgating (though I can’t quite tell how far back he was in that video). Especially since he just sat in the middle of the street blocking traffic. But … even if somebody in front of you deliberately and maliciously stomps on their brakes like that, aren’t you always at fault for rear-ending another car?
Back when I was 17, and a fairly new and inexperienced driver (in Las Vegas), I didn’t realize you could turn left at an arrow-less stoplight, even if there was heavy oncoming traffic, by doing the whole “move into the intersection and wait for the oncoming light to turn red, then complete the turn” thing. One day a guy behind me was apparently in a hurry to turn, and when I didn’t move into the intersection, he started honking repeatedly. By the time the light turned red, he was holding his horn down continually, and he left it blaring until the light turned green and we finally had a green left arrow. After completing the turn, I flipped on the turn signal and moved into the right lane so he could pass me. Instead, he zoomed past me on the left, then immediately swerved into the right land while stomping the brakes. Fortunately I was halfway expecting this and had already slowed way down to let him go by anyway, so I was able to stop before hitting him. He sat there blaring his horn and flipping me off through his rear windshield for a solid 20 seconds before screeching away and eventually turning into an office park.
When I got to work and asked people if I would have been at fault if I had hit him, the general consensus was “if you hit him after he was already in the lane, probably. If you hit him while he was still changing lanes, probably not.” I’ve always wondered how accurate that was.
If a private citizen had performed a brake check like that I’d expect an observing cop to ticket them for unsafe driving. So yeah, unsafe, obnoxious, possibly illegal.
I think you have to consider whether there were actions you could have taken to avoid rear ending someone. If you are following someone in your lane then you are the only one who can change the following distance, the driver in front has no control over that. If the car in front then performs an emergency stop and you rear-end them, then it’s your fault for not allowing enough distance. On the other hand, in the personal example you gave, the driver of the front car has moved into your lane and braked. He hasn’t given you the opportunity to establish a safe following distance and so I believe that in this instance it would be the fault of the car in front. This is my opinion on who is actually at fault, not a statement about who the law or insurance would consider to be at fault.
The “it’s always the following driver’s fault” line is correct in 99% of cases, but some common sense needs to be applied to the situation.
There was a thread here many years back about a driver who had road-raged a bunch of cyclists by overtaking them then slamming on the brakes. One cyclist had hit the back of the car and died. The opinion of some in that thread was that it was always the following vehicles fault in a rear-ending situation, but that fails to account for the specific circumstances in which the driver of the car acted in a way that prevented the following cyclists from establishing a safe following distance.
A good trick to keep up your sleeve is if someone is tailgating you, increase your own following distance so if the car in front has to stop suddenly, you can be more gentle with your stop and hopefully give the moron behind you more reaction time. Regardless of fault, having to take your car in for repairs is inconvenient.
The cops are trolling in the nearest “city” to me currently. They seem to have a hard-on over a certain crosswalk, and are basically entrapping people to violate there.
They have a deputy in an orange vest stand on the curb, then, as a car approaches, step off, with no margin for the driver to stop, then, a motorcycle cop nails them.
So, either you stop for no reason (guy in orange vest on sidewalk) and wait to see what the fuck he’s gonna do, or you drive like a normal person and guy in orange vest jumps in front of you, more or less.
My wife saw it in person (she is on cop’s side of this one) and I saw it on the news. The guy in the orange vest stepped off the curb right in front of car. Looked to me like clear bullshit cop trolling. No way for a driver to win in this situation.
I was wondering why the cop was riding the yellow line like that. (from about 33 seconds in to the video) So worried about the guy behind him he was barely staying in the lane.
I saw that too, and would attribute it to the officer being a bad driver. He proved that about 44 seconds into the video.
Or he was preoccupied with the car behind him, and setting up a way to entrap him and have the motorist rear end him. It certainly looks like that’s what the officer tried to do.
I wouldn’t discount either.
I have to wonder if the officers car dash cam (and I hope they have a rear camera) was on. I hope that will come out in court, but not crossing my fingers.
Yup. He also violated just about every standard principle of Traffic Stop 101.
[ul]
[li]Didn’t call it in.[/li][li]Blocking the roadway with the offender’s car behind him. Where the stop occurred, trailing vehicles would need to fully go into oncoming traffic to pass the road obstruction. Had he pulled over, let Omar pass & then initiated a traffic stop other vehicles would have been able to pass (& see oncoming cars safely before passing).[/li][li]Didn’t active emergency lights.[/li][li]Approached the driver from the front instead of the rear. [/li][li]Walking/standing in the opposing lane with traffic coming & not even looking at them.[/li][/ul]