Defensive Driving - How do you defend against this?

[Jim]

Earlier this week I was writing an article on Defensive Driving. One of the big things that it is difficult to defend against is being hit from behind. Managing both the speed of your vehicle and the space around it will help avoid most rear end shunts. However when it comes to being hit from behind with a truck it seems there is really no defence at all. During a bit of research I found a couple of videos that illustrate this.

This first video is a set up and illustrates the forces that occur when 44 tons hit a stationary car.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gjniPX3SZBc"]YouTube - Truck crash[/ame]

This second video is a real incident in Croatia. From comments it seems the driver of the offending truck was texting on a mobile at the time. Please do not watch if you are easily shocked.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW-8g40oLbc"]YouTube - Ledenik tunnel crash[/ame]

If ever there was a case for people not using a telephone in a vehicle this incident is it.

 

[roverman1]

how do you defend against this

that was realy shocking to think how easy it all happend . you havnt got a chance

 

[Wildman]

I was rear ended whilst stationary on a downhill slope waiting to turn right, so my brakes were on.
The woman driving the car that hit me was on the phone. Escort van written off and did not do her car much good either, luckily niether of us were injured. She was given the chance to escape prosecution by going on a driver refresher course. Not on at all should have been fined and made to attend a refresher course.

 

[Road Runner]

i had a brand new Shogun in 1996 and was rear ended while stationary in traffic by a Securicor 7.5 ton lorry. shoved me into 5 cars in front, shogun being tough saved my life, guy was on the phone (yes one of the early phone incidents)

Sucuricor (bar stewards) are self indemnifying for insurance and took 2 years to get them to pay (I was on a traders policy sadly so had to do the fighting through a private solicitor) lucky i had money then as could not afford a battle like that now if i was on 3rd parity insurance.

 

[Jim]

I think that thankfully many rear end shunts are at low speed. In Guildford a couple of years ago I was stationary at a roundabout and then suddenly pushed into traffic . I was on a motorbike I wasn't scratched but my brand new BMW had few

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[scotjimland]

Shocking indeed,

it also serves as a reminder to those who drive heavy motorhomes, particularly USRVs that our braking distances are much greater than a car.. something many motorists don't realise when they cut you up .. :Angry:

 

[Road Runner]

Shocking indeed,

it also serves as a reminder to those who drive heavy motorhomes, particularly USRVs that our braking distances are much greater than a car.. something many motorists don't realise when they cut you up .. :Angry:

This is why i need to drive either faster than lorries or slower as they can out brake me easily.

Trouble is in the mid 50s you are constantly being overtaken by them and your safety gap filled.

 

[Tony Santara]

Hi Jim
This is a constant fear in my working day

Looking at the first vid I would suggest the trucks gross weight would be nearer 16 tonnes rather than 44 tonnes which the gross weight of an articulated truck

So the momentum and the damage would be a lot higher at 44 tonnes

 

[dave newell]

A couple of years ago a friend of mine was rear ended by a 7.5 tonner. He was stationary at the rear of a queue of traffic at lights in his USRV with a Daihatsu Trajet on A frame behind. The 7.5 tonner didn't relise the traffic in front of him was statinoary till it was too late and hit the Daihatsu completely flattening it. My mate's RV was shunted forwards into the rear of a shogun which was totalled and I think the car in front of that was written off too. The 7.5 tonner careered off the rear of my mates rig into the path of an oncoming ambulance which he also took out! There was some suggestion that he had been using his mobile phone at the time but this wasn't proved as I recall. Mate's Damon intruder (you know, the Ann Summers model) suffered relatively minor damage to the front panel and crushed battery trays etc.

D.

 

[ourcampersbeentrashed]

Think about how close cars stop from each other both at traffic lights and sitting in traffic queues. It would, in many cases only take the slightest nudge from behind for a vehicle to hit the car in front. Very few people leave a decent gap, and if they do, in many cases someone will cut in on it.

With the motorway work that motorhome uses do during a year, we see the accident aftermaths, we see how close to each other people drive.

This is certainly food for thought.

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[pappajohn]

i nwas rearended at a set of lights in my pickup by a rover 600.

he split my towball cover and gave me a push...thats it......not a lot left of the rover's front bumper and grill.....sweet payback

 

[moandick]

The Germans Had a very reasonable answer to rear-ending collisions - whoever was the last one in was responsible for the TOTAL accident!

In 1984 I saw the result of a 6 car rear-ending at the Theodore Haus Brucke in Dusselforf - where a girl who had just collected her brand new 'topless' Merc coupe was about to go over the bridge BUT stopped dead from about 30 mph.

Five cars behind her went in - the last being a little 'Bug-eyed' Citreon CV2 which emerged with it's headlights missing - BUT according to German Law the Citreon was the last car in and was therefore responsible. The driver got done for about DM700,000 which in those days was about £250,000.

Best picture of the week was our Brigadier who was second car in - had been projected over the passenger seat to end up head first in the passenger footwell with his feet scraping the car roof! Not impressed - ruined his dignity! :Angry: