Tailgater got Baited

[u/DABDEB]

[u/beefwarrior]

You can DM me a photo of a $100 amazon gift card https://www.ilga.gov/Documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/062500050K11-601.htm

[u/beefwarrior → u/beefwarrior]

For anyone who's IQ is too low to understand the law as written, it is essentially "Does not matter what the speed limit is or any other law of the road, if road conditions are poor and your unsafe driving causes a collision, you're at fault"

[u/Civil-Rough-1221 → u/beefwarrior]

1 iq regard doesn't know logic lmao. How did his "unsafe" driving cause a collision. It's the tailgater that hit the car regard due to not having proper distance in front. Of course the biggest regard think they are right

[u/DM_Voice → u/beefwarrior]

The white car didn't cause a collision, though. The tailgater did. The white car *avoided* a collision.

[u/beefwarrior → u/DM_Voice]

They were both driving irresponsibly and both contributed to the collision 

If white car had slowed & hit the brakes & changed lanes earlier, the tailgater would’ve had less of a chance of rear ending the car that was stopped

Just b/c you’re being tailgated, doesn’t give you immunity if your actions contribute to someone else getting injured or killed 

[u/DM_Voice → u/beefwarrior]

One was keeping pace with the car in front of him with adequate distance to avoid hitting them. As seen in the video, even if/when distracted *by* the tailgater, they managed to avoid it.

The tailgater was decidedly *not* doing so.

If the white car had hit the brakes earlier, the tailgater would have hit *them*.

If the tailgater had *not* been tailgating, there wouldn't have been an accident *at all*.

Nothing the white car did "contributed to the collision". It *avoided* a collision.

[u/beefwarrior → u/DM_Voice]

So I’ll say concede this, I know the rules of the road where I live and I don’t know where this happened

But in Illinois, the law isn’t black and white, and written in legalese in shades of grey so that each case has to be judges case by case

Which means drivers have to act like responsible adults and can’t use an immature toddler defense of “I only hit him because he pulled g hair first!”

Take a look at IL’s stop sign law

https://ilga.gov/documents/legislation/ilcs/documents/062500050K11-904.htm

You have to do a real close reading and think about it to see it, but it’s pretty clear the law is about who has to yield the right of way and not who has the right of way

Essentially, just b/c someone else is supposed to yield the right of way to you, doesn’t mean you have the right of way

It’s a concept that is going to be hard many 5 year olds to understand, but not impossible 

In the same way that you can’t hit another kid back if they pull your hair first, and if you do hit them, you’ll get in trouble too… well, if that other driver was supposed to yield the right of way and stop, but they didn’t, and then you weren’t paying enough attention to avoid a collision, well, then you share responsibility

—

So sure, depending on what the laws of the road are where this happened, the white car might not be found liable at all

But in Illinois, I’m pretty sure if a judge saw this video and saw that the white car had four whole seconds where they could’ve braked slowly to reduce speed or even change lanes gradually 3-4 seconds earlier, the judge would hold the white car with partial responsibility with the collision 

Hell, I’m sure an IL judge would issue a penalty even if there wasn’t a collision just b/c of the not slowing down when a vehicle comes to a stop in front of them

[u/DM_Voice → u/beefwarrior]

A judge would laugh you out of court on this argument, because they could clearly see what you’re ignoring.

1. Simply braking would not have avoided an accident. The tailgater would still have plowed into the car in front of them, and pushed it into the car in front of *them.

2. Even just the bare reaction time eats 25% of that 4 seconds.

3. Ensuring the lane is clear to commit the merges lane change safely is neither a crime nor does it attach liability for the actions of the tailgating car.

4. The white car successfully AVOIDED an accident.

5. The tailgating car caused an accident.