It's an irrational response - again, I think it's a sense or personal space being violated - 95% of the car accidents are front to front.......very very very few are front to rear, and almost all of those happen at very low speeds, not highway..... Tailgating pisses people off - no question about that - but I don't think it has anything to do with getting run up the back or avoiding an accident. And Blimey, how fast were those 12 cars going on the 30 mpg dragon that they all piled up when the front car tried to miss the animal? I'll bet it wasn't 30 mph, that's for sure......so I have no sympathy for any of the accidents that happen when people do stupid things. In the video in the first post, would the car behind have had any problems if the guy in front just kept driving along? So was the problem caused by the tailgating, or the idiot doing the brake check? And BTW, I thought pretty much every thing has ABS these days, I wonder why the thing started gyrating like that?
It started gyrating like that because its a heavy SUV with a soft suspension, that was not designed to be driven fast or be quickly maneuvered. Dave I see you point so I am not completely disagreeing. I live in Memphis and I would beg to differ on the front to rear collisions. You would be amazed the way people drive here, its insane! There are so many rear end collisions hear, its every day. I don't usually drive in rush hour traffic but during this time accidents on the freeway are a dally occurrence, almost all are from tailgaters. If your not doing 70 you will be run over. At night when I go to and from work, around midnight to 2AM. The speeds of some are much much higher. I keep a very close eye on my rearview mirror. I can only think of one front to front accident. When I do drive in rush hour traffic I have routinely been tailgated by trucks and SUV's. They are the worst offenders. And yes I have been rear ended by a truck in heavy traffic while in the mini. There was no way for me to get out of the way all lanes were jammed up. So yes I get mad when I am tailgated. Lee
I agree the person in the fast lane that doesn't move over is nearly as bad as the tailgater (key word 'nearly'). However, there are plenty of circumstances where the driver being tailgated can't pull over to the right. I lived in southern California for 15 years and I'm sure everyone has seen what traffic can look like on the 5. My point is that the person being tail gated isn't always contributing to the problem. As I said prior to this I do not brake check people but choose to flick on my headlights (tail lights). If that doesn't work I will continually slow down till the idiot gets pissed at me and passes.
Going around a slow driver in the left lane is preferable to tailgating them, but it's also not correct to pass on the right (and it's dangerous too). So one kind of bad driving often leads to another. We REALLY need is the police to lose their misplaced emphasis on ticketing speeders, and instead have them focus on enforcing existing laws about only using the left lane for passing. The can still fill their coffers by writing tickets (which, let's face it, is the reason they ticket), but they can do so in a way that will actually help improve traffic flow, and in the end, probably cut down on drivers speeding and road rage too. Looks like some Michigan State Police are on board with this: [ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmJ3ERzKMt0"]Michigan Troopers Educating Drivers about using the left lane - YouTube[/ame]
Uh, no. "According to the National Safety Council, over 2.5 million rear end collisions are reported every year, making them the most common type of automobile accident" Auto Accident Statistics - Auto-Accident-Resource.com
95% of all statistics are made up 100% of the time. Hope I'm not tailgating your post. I don't like to pass on the right, but will do if needed.
I brake check tailgaters and don't care if people don't like it. Get off my a$$ and stop talking or texting on your phone. I am doing well above the speed limit and if you want to pass do it on the right and let's make it a race.
Be glad you weren't ever behind his brother back in the day... when he would huck C & D cell batteries out the sunroof. (Or was that your trick, Dave?)
Wait, so you think your breaking the law by speeding grants you some sort of special immunity against following the other law that says to keep your butt out of sitting in the left lane? .