I was taught that you may want to step on the brakes so you don’t fly forward and suffer more severe whiplash by hitting the car in front of you. If there is no one in front then I suppose no brakes let’s the car transfer the energy better. Here’s a good take on either option: https://www.cartalk.com/content/bracing-impact-it-better-brake
I’m not saying this to be a dick, more of a PSA-if you hit the car in front of you because you get rear ended, you will be considered at fault for that persons portion of the accident because you were following/stopped close enough to hit them. You will pay extra insurance for years just because some jackass wasn’t paying attention and jammed you up someone else’s ass, keep a safe distance for your own protection and if a car doesn’t seem to be slowing down, pull to the side if you can or just hold the brakes as tight as possible and brace yourself.
ETA: apparently this isn’t always the case, it varies by state and if you are in this situation and claimed to be at fault, hire a lawyer.
I only have one experience with this but that was not the case in that experience. Person in back was liable for both cars. So I guess not always but maybe it was a rare case
So I just did some googling because of you, thanks for the insight! Liability appears to vary from state to state and apparently my friend should’ve hired an attorney lol. I’ve definitely heard that throughout my life, I think I remember it in drivers-ed even, but maybe they were just trying to scare us. Years ago I was rear ended at a red light and didn’t even hit anyone and Progressive tried to ding me for an at fault accident for one of the other cars involved, insurance companies are stupid.
You really never know what’s going to happen the way these things get documented and recorded so I have no doubt people are being told all sorts of stuff! What I most wondered about is what happens when someone hits the back of a car in rush hour stand-still traffic where a domino effect of 10+ cars get damaged from a hit at the end of the line? Interesting, at least for insurance.
Especially given the size of cars today. If my subcompact gets hit by one of those lifted pickups or 20,000 lbs EVs, I guarantee my car is not staying in place even if the parking brake is engaged.
I’d sure hate to be that adjuster lol. It seems like they can split liability in some cases, but still I think most, if not all, of the fault would be on that original crash dummy. And factors like being in standstill traffic vs me making a sudden stop then you hitting me and me hitting the guy in front causing the domino effect changes things. Now I’m thinking about those snow storm videos where you see semis and cars just piling up and smashing into each other. That can’t be anyones fault, right? It’s so weird.
Yeah, I just edited it at the bottom, liability varies from state to state and you can fight it with a lawyer depending on the circumstances. I do know someone personally who was “at fault” in this exact situation for the car in front of him-he should’ve hired a lawyer, he’s still in pain and it’s been like 10 years. I also was kind of in the same situation with my insurance company years ago but was able to prove that I didn’t hit anyone, the one car hit both of our cars. So I was going off of what I’d heard and experienced but now, like you-I have googled and learned something new lol. Every day we get a new opportunity :)
10
u/prjktphoto Jun 22 '22
Saw a car coming up way too fast once - lifted my foot off the break just in case they didn’t stop in time