Comment on These "warnings" that some people think mean anything

• wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world ⁨16⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

  I was taught to watch the car ahead as it passes a static object. For every 10mph you are traveling, you should have one second of breaking/response distance. So this image at the posted limit should have empty space for 6 seconds before the driver of the following vehicle passes the same object.

  In reality it’s about half that, maybe a third.

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  • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de ⁨15⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

    Fascinating. I think what we have here is a 2 second rule. You’d fix on some object, count two seconds and you shouldn’t be passing it before that. Disregarding speed if you’re both moving at the same speed. Easier rule (and what I went with) is half the number on the speedometer. So 50m at 100km/h and that happens to be an easy number in Germany because that’s exactly the distance of the reflector posts next to roral roads and motorways.

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    • wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world ⁨6⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

      This was taught by a family member police officer that did accident reconstruction, and it was reinforced when I was taking drivers ed in high school. The general population doesn’t know and doesn’t get tested on following distance, at least not when I was tested. But here (big big capital city) 2 is typical, and anything over 4 makes people cut your off a lot. Our rush hour starts around 2 and ends around 8, the population vs the road infrastructure is just way too much, has been for like 20 years.

      I was responding to a collision that happened in front of me, as a first responder (cpr + first aid certified, at the time). A Rav4 slammed into an older (90s) Corolla at highway+ speeds (traffic was moving about 70-75 mph immediately before). The corolla braked for traffic, and the rav4 did not. I’m directing people to call 911, trying to get the driver out of the corolla (it was a hard hit, the backseat was partially crushed, the trunk was non-existent, driver door jammed because frame buckling), the driver of the rav4 wasn’t wearing a seatbelt and slammed into the windshield, so blood all over it, the car, his head. While I’m trying to offer medical aid, people are slowly down to look - this was about 11 at night, still fairly busy highway - and again someone not watching, braked, swerved, tried to split between two cars in the center-most lanes (high occupancy vehicle lane, and ‘high speed’ lane). The sound of metal from all 3 was so loud, and I got to watch it, less than 30 feet from me. None of the cars involved in that collision stopped. But the car that tried to split must have been going at a difference of ~30mph above the cars slowing down. About 45 seconds later, police arrived, limited the lanes and slowed traffic properly (I only had my warning triangle with me, vs 3 lanes were effectively blocked with cars and debris. But during the busy times, you can see multiple crashes one right after the other because traffic density just multiplies the risk.

      Just a mix of inattentiveness + speed/not enough time to react has been several crashes I was witness/first responder to.

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      • hendrik@palaver.p3x.de ⁨3⁩ ⁨hours⁩ ago

        Wow. Thanks for sharing. I don’t know what to say… Guess memories like that stick. Luckily I just had very few near death experiences on the road and the accidents I’ve been involved in or helped were within city limits, so at lower speed and people were about okay. But yeah, cars are potentially dangerous machines. Killing someone, or nearly killing someone is some kind of wake-up call to pay attention. But we should all really try to make an effort to get it right before this happens.

        I think it’s the same with the uptake in cars here. I’ve been driving for roughly 20 years now. If I remember correctly, rush hour is way longer today as it used to be back then.

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