Originally Posted by
Biker395
Of course ... by definition. But:
(1) Even 2 seconds is not enough when the person in front of you slams on the brakes from 70 MPH with zero warning. You're assuming I was following closer than that, and I wasn't. Presumably you saw brake lights, so there was warning
(2) Try driving through Los Angeles on the 405 sometime and maintaining a 2 second distance. It ain't easy. Why. It's perfectly simple in any kind of traffic/speed. If others get in the gap, drop back. It's not a race.
(3) Regardless the person that dropped the item is still obviously the primary cause of the crash.True, but a driver should always be prepared for the unexpected I'm quite certain the insurance company would have gone after them for the damage to all of the cars, should they have been identified.Identified? Most licence plates are illegible beyond about 20 feet. Unlike the rest of the world where they are legible from at least 25 yards! In fact that used to be part of the driving test in the UK: to be able to read a licence plate from 25 yards (75 feet)
Here's some info from the UK Highway Code regarding braking distances
http://www.direct.gov.uk/prod_consum.../dg_188029.pdf
The basic problem in the US, compared with the many other countries I've driven in, is the lackadaisical approach to driving: one hand on the steering wheel, phoning, texting, fiddling with something beside you, looking at yourself in the mirror, no signals, eating and drinking, reading, random lane changing, no lane discipline etc, etc. In fact anything apart from paying full attention to driving. It's no wonder the US has one of the highest number of traffic fatalities per 100,000 miles driven than most other developed countries. And what is it due to? Poor training, easy tests and lack of commonsense.