Safety on the road

[Jux]

I won't be going into all the messy details, but this morning after getting off work, I was driving home and came across the scene of an accident, a pedestrian walking her dog had been struck by a pickup truck while trying to cross the street.

I don't know all the details leading up to the crash, as I arrived maybe three minutes after it happened, but I do know it was dark and foggy, so visibility was low.

Unfortunately she wasn't viable (not to mention the scene wasn't safe to even start first aid due to a combination of road conditions and with how fast cars were going down the road), so I spent the time waiting for EMS just trying to direct traffic away from her so she wasn't struck again.

When I got home, I decided to look up a bit of information about the math behind how much time is really needed to stop a car safely, as well as fatality rates at different speeds. Figured I may as well share what I found, because what I was taught when learning to drive was apparently wrong, and I'm going to need to adjust my driving habits to account for this new information.

https://www.propublica.org/article/unsafe-at-many-speeds?utm_campaign=sprout&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter&utm_content=1464207000

https://arachnoid.com/lutusp/auto.html

Edit: I realize the 2nd link doesn't account for certain variables like friction coefficient or how well the brakes are working, but it seems like a good starting point to work from for figuring stopping distance under the best conditions.

 

[Spade Lead]

There are three things to think about. Your reaction time. Your Vehicle's Stopping Time (which is literally different from vehicle to vehicle, even within the same make and model year). Every vehicle stops differently. The Weather.

My Cadillac could stop from 45 in the space of one intersection (less than 35 feet) and yet my wife's Hyundai couldn't, despite being a newer much lighter car, and last night I brake checked myself from 65 to zero and I swear it was less than 100 feet. I pulled into an offramp and then slammed on the brakes at freeway speed. Highway Administration estimates of stopping time are shit, and 1.5 second reaction time (used in your link) is universally fatal in accidents at freeway speeds as even if you do follow safe stopping distances, you don't have that much time to react due to the way accidents happen.

I had roughly 45 feet of reaction time between the intersection I was approaching on the local highway (two lane undivided highways suck ass) when the car that was trying to turn left was rear ended and tossed into my lane. The driver of the one vehicle was distracted and never slowed down. I somehow still got the car slowed to 30 mph or so before slamming into the rear of the vehicle that had been hit first, and all three vehicles came a stop on what had been my side of the intersection.

[https://ibb.co/nCknkn]
[https://ibb.co/esknkn]

If I had been in a car with better tires, I probably could have been slowed even further, but Hyundai's suck ass in an accident, and have terrible traction due to their tiny tires, even on dry pavement.

Knowing your vehicle and how to control it is more important than actual hard and fast rules about speed and following distances.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Knowing your car is good, but still better safe than sorry. I was brought up driving in Miami/South Florida, which while I can't attest to every other state, is one of the worst areas to drive in, possibly due to the high influx of tourism from all parts of the world and tourists seem to be terrible drivers for some reason (majority of accidents in my hometown are due to out-of-town folks who apparently can't understand simple road signs). So I learned defensive driving from the get-go and up until I was 26 (11 years after I started driving) I'd never had an accident, then some asshole ran a stop sign and ended up getting t-boned by my car, totaling it, and then they just drove off, which the cops later found the vehicle abandoned and then 20 minutes after that called in stolen... then not a week later in my rental I come to a stop to make a left turn on a 2-lane road and some idiot rear-ends me, then a few months later after I got a new car, which was a 98 Civic all Fast and Furioused up, some idiot backs into my front-end... Like not one of those things were preventable, sometimes shit happens, and all the accidents I've ever been in weren't my fault or me driving.
Ugh, no clue what my point is other than the only thing one can do is drive as if every other person on the road, pedestrian, and bicycle-rider are morons who will likely get you killed.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Safety on the road rule 1 - The bigger car always has right of way even if they're wrong.

If you're in an accident the smaller vehicle is ALWAYS the one that's in more danger, therefore the smaller your car the more defensive you should be. If I drive a hummer and I hit a fiat it'll be a speed-bump to me and a fatality to them.

Weirdly enough people usually treat it like it's the other way around. Pedestrians, cyclists, bikers, they always just do whatever they want on the road when they're at the greatest risk to being killed by a car.

Safety on the road rule 2 - Everyone around you is an idiot all the time.

Not all accidents are avoidable or even your fault. You can do everything right and still get hit by another car that's doing everything wrong.

Safety on the road rule 3 - You don't really save time by driving extra fast.

Driving fast and aggressively, cutting people off, driving through stops signs, none of that actually gets you to your destination that much more effectively. At best you might save yourself 2-3 minutes. Is there anything that's so important that you can't be 3 minutes late for it?

 

[Catnip1024]

Well, from that the bigger lesson is speed in poor conditions. You should never be going so fast that you can't comfortably stop in the clear road you can see ahead of you. It's crazy how many people speed along in the fog, or around blind corners.

As for stopping distances - only the driver of a given car knows exactly how well a particular car stops, so average distances are deceptive.

 

[Vanilla ISIS]

I have to constantly dodge or block people from walking into me on the sidewalk, where you don't need quick reaction times.
Based on that, you need to be really careful on the road, in regards to other driers but also yourself, especially if the conditions are less than desirable.

Just last year, I was standing at an intersection waiting for the lights to change when suddenly, a car rammed another car and both of them went speeding my way. I had to do a dodge roll into a store in order to avoid becoming a statistic.
People on average are very irresponsible plus they usually don't train their reaction and coordination at all.

Can't wait for automated cars to be the norm.

 

[gigastar]

Figured I may as well share what I found, because what I was taught when learning to drive was apparently wrong, and I'm going to need to adjust my driving habits to account for this new information.

Depending on how long ago you were taught, its possible the road safety regulations were tightened up since then.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Safety on the road rule 2 - Everyone around you is an idiot all the time.

My personal rule: Expect everyone around you to do the absolute stupidest thing possible at any given point in time, and be prepared to react to it. You'll find that you're seldom wrong, and never surprised.

 

[maninahat]

Well I was almost killed in a car crash in Iceland last month. Part of the problem was that a) I wasn't used to driving at any speed in icy conditions and b) I was driving an unfamiliar and somewhat more primitive car than usual (fuck you, Suzuki Jimny!).

I guess my advice for driving on holiday in a dangerous location is to bring a thermos and some blankets (which I fortunately had). The other is to get a car you are more familiar with, as whilst a 4x4 might look better than rear wheel drive for snow driving, a lot of the mod cons that most modern cars have can avoid deadly slips. Finally; maybe get some training on how to deal with skids, as this was the first time it had ever happened to me and nearly was my last.

When I drive in the UK, I drive very defensively. I give people a huge gap on the motorway. In India however, this would be suicidal, as people would constantly try to merge in front of you to create tiny, tiny gaps.

 

[gigastar]

In India however, this would be suicidal, as people would constantly try to merge in front of you to create tiny, tiny gaps.

Speaking of India...