I an avid motorcyclist, I could not imagine crashing so bad that I die because a car in front of me braked suddenly. There must be more to this story.
Well that sure isn’t the way the paper reported it. I don’t care if it is freeway or not, I always drive so that I can stop if the guy in front of does.
I missed the post you quoted. I like to think I’d maneuver around the car on the highway, but really- she stopped on a highway (freeway?). Like stopped. In park. That is just crazily inconsiderate of other motorists to expect them to stop for the barrier that is her car (vs slow/stop while following said car).
PS: I can’t believe that I missed that post. Time for sparky! to call it quits for the night.
I’ve seen several times where a large car or truck moves out of the path of a parked car at the last minute, leaving the person behind him with very little time to react if they weren’t able to see the obstruction ahead of time. There was a horrific accident out here about 20 years ago where a stupid idiot came to a near halt on the freeway to show her passengers the pretty view; a truck behind them swerved out of the way in time, but a small pickup directly behind it plowed into the car, causing the truck to burst into flames with the doors crunched shut, and two screaming people burned to death while others tried in vain to open the doors. The first idiot driver was charge with some manner of negligent driving; not enough, but all that could be made to stick.
It’s true that the driver in the rear is responsible for not hitting things in their path. It’s also true that people just don’t leave themselves enough room for unexpected things, because that’s not how traffic patterns tend to flow.
I see nobody’s actually linked to a report of this accident. I cannot find any information about it in order to check by myself what the facts are. Can somebody provide a source?
http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2010/06/28/14548891.html
As you can see, some details vary from one story to the next.