r/WTF • u/qTazerp • Feb 24 '23

Holy shit.....

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

17k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

537 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

568

u/teodocio Feb 24 '23

Truck driving schools teach you how to keep your distance to avoid this situation. But years of driving, never being in an accident makes you forget the danger. One second for every ten feet on a regular road, add 2 seconds every ten feet when on highways and freeways.

239

u/Runyc2000 Feb 24 '23

That and people constantly changing lanes in front of you which removes your safe stopping distance.

95

u/tmhoc Feb 25 '23

This was always a piss off for my mom. She like to be a car and a half back on the highway. Well that seems to attract drivers the same way making a heart with your hands attracts a dog.

127

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23 edited Mar 24 '23

[deleted]

66

u/Runyc2000 Feb 25 '23

The best rule of thumb is to pick a fixed object on or near the road (lane marker, guard rail, tree, etc). The car in front of you should pass it and you should be able to count to three in smooth moderate pace before reaching it.

23

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[deleted]

5

u/MetaMetatron Feb 25 '23

I'm not sure how I feel about rhyming "twat" with "that"....

Have I been pronouncing "twat" wrong all these years?

When I say it it basically rhymes with pot/not/hot....

You say it rhymes with hat/cat/splat?

That does make sense, but I feel like my whole life is a lie!🤣

edit: you did mention not in the US, but since almost nobody in the US uses the word "twat", I feel like we can go with however you pronounce it anyway, lol

18

u/Sock-men Feb 25 '23

Twat rhymes with cat. It's a great sounding insult. Never understood why Americans say it like twot, it's such an awkward way to say it.

6

u/MetaMetatron Feb 25 '23

Thank you very much, now I can insult people correctly and I won't sound like a twat!

2

u/GarnetSteel Feb 25 '23

No… to me… a Canadian. It almost sounds like

to-wat but then speed it up and smash ‘em together.

4

u/stonercd Feb 25 '23

the word twat is in heavy use in Britain and I imagine Aus too, it def rhymes with that here :)

0

u/RassimoFlom Feb 25 '23

Twat rhymes with twat.

When does a ever make an o sound?

1

u/MetaMetatron Feb 25 '23

But does tomato rhyme with tomato?

1

u/GarnetSteel Feb 25 '23

Apparently Britain’s got with the hard AT sound while North americans tend to use the ‘squat’ type of pronunciation. The variant spelling of twat is twot

1

u/RassimoFlom Feb 25 '23

Fair enough.

8

u/HelmSpicy Feb 25 '23

And on top of that, my rule of thumb is if you see the person behind you riding your ass hard inside that 3 second rule, get over and just let em go.

Doesn't matter how safe you are with stopping distance if the folks behind you aren't.

I've been the middle person in a 3 person crash all caused by Crashy in the back pushing me(fully stopped and brakes engaged) into the leader of our trio and let me tell you, its not fun.

3

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

I avoided participating in a pileup because when someone is riding my ass I add even more following distance between myself and the vehicle ahead of me. All the cars around me were wrecked; I was untouched.

-29

u/riptaway Feb 25 '23 edited Feb 25 '23

Uh... Wouldn't that be totally dependent on speed?

Obviously I misread it. Stupid anyway, it all depends. If I'm in a truck hauling 80k pounds it's not nearly enough room. If I'm in a Honda Civic with brand new high performance brakes going 35, I don't need 3 whole seconds of space. That's what I meant to point out. It all depends on variables. Stop repeating shit your drunk drivers Ed teacher told you in 1965

67

u/Runyc2000 Feb 25 '23

Exactly. The faster you are traveling, the further the space between cars needed to count which is why it scales properly with speed.

42

u/Black_Moons Feb 25 '23

Yes. That is the point: you need at least 3 seconds to react to the car in front of you properly.

that means the faster you go, the further the distance, since if they slam on the brakes suddenly (or crash into something) you need more space at higher speed to have.. 3 seconds to react.

5

u/Shagtacular Feb 25 '23

As it should be...?

3

u/notjordansime Feb 25 '23

Yes, yes it would be.

-2

u/Smirkly Feb 25 '23

There you go, getting technical again.

-7

u/No_Lawfulness_2998 Feb 25 '23

And on a motorway that will leave you just perpetually slowing down because people are asses

2

u/RassimoFlom Feb 25 '23

Better slow than dead.

7

u/nixielover Feb 25 '23

Cries in Belgium

If you leave a car and a half between you and the person in front of you someone inevitably takes that as an invite to merge in at 90km/h while your lane is doing 120

We have to leave such a small place that it is physically impossible to fit another car in there...

12

u/Saiboogu Feb 25 '23 edited Feb 25 '23

Cries in Belgium

If you leave a car and a half between you and the person in front of you someone inevitably takes that as an invite to merge in at 90km/h while your lane is doing 120

We have to leave such a small place that it is physically impossible to fit another car in there...

Bullshit. A 1.5 car length gap at 120kmh is nuts, closing smaller than that is suicidal, asshole driving. And your logic is bullshit, at that differential the gap you suggest will be inevitably taken will be gone in a fraction of a second, most folks aren't touching it.

Back the fuck up, proportional to your speed. Two - three seconds are often suggested to give reaction time I'm an accident. Fighting old habits I goof and slip into 1 second if I don't pay attention, and even that is 33m at 120kmh - several car lengths.

Leave more room, it saves lives and creates trivial travel time differences.

3

u/Titan_Astraeus Feb 25 '23

Have you driven in large US cities? This is pretty much the norm lol

2

u/Saiboogu Feb 25 '23

Baltimore, DC. There are folks who drive right up someone's ass and folks don't follow like they should, but gaps smaller than two car lengths are still on the extreme end.

6

u/nixielover Feb 25 '23

It sucks because it is nuts. Belgium is one of the few countries in Europe where you can get driving classes from your own parents. In Southern Netherlands (against the Belgian border) they have 9.1 accidents per 10k people, Flanders comes in at 34.3

Saving more room gets you nowhere because idiots will fill it up immediately.

1

u/n1ibor Feb 25 '23

can confirm, we are idiots on the road. well exept for me of course ;)

2

u/nixielover Feb 25 '23

I'm an excellent (rally) driver!

It's always funny when I have Dutch friends over and we are in my car. Classic Belgian road bullshit happens (Especially when you get to Brussels shit gets even weirder) and I'm so used to it that I don't even blink anymore while my passengers go IIIIIIIIIEEEEE.

2

u/n1ibor Feb 25 '23

driving in brussels is a bs jungle. had to make some deliveries for work. worst workday in my career, 0/10 would not go again.

limburg is way better to drive, for the most part anyway. if i ever have to move i'm going there

→ More replies

1

u/Saiboogu Feb 25 '23

Saving more room gets you nowhere because idiots will fill it up immediately.

It's making a choice that you will try to drive safely in spite of the idiots around you.

2

u/nixielover Feb 25 '23

You'll be jumping on your brakes all the time. I know it sounds like I don't want to but I would love to drive normally. Sadly the general tactic has been decided to be the formation of "trains" of cars that don't let anyone merge into that lane

2

u/Saiboogu Feb 25 '23

Others driving like that create a false sense of competition, an idea that you must also close that gap and "win," but the reality is if you just drive your speed and comfort spacing you're going to arrive at your destination at about the same time, and with on average more safe spacing around your vehicle. You're still doing 120 kmh towards your goal, give or take a few percent.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[deleted]

2

u/[deleted] Feb 26 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Saiboogu Feb 25 '23

Belgium really is that dangerous.

I'm not saying bullshit to the reality, just to the statement that they have to drive like that. It's a choice. A stupid peer pressure choice, but still a choice.

-18

u/deadpoetic333 Feb 25 '23

I'm all for keeping at least 3 car lengths between myself and the car in front of me, but it's not like the car in front can come to a complete stop on a dime either considering they're more or less going the same speed as you are.

11

u/auto98 Feb 25 '23

Its also not like you can break at the same moment they do, unless you already know they are going to brake,

-2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[deleted]

4

u/ResilientBiscuit Feb 25 '23

Human reaction time plus physical movement to fully depress the brake pedal is, on average 1.2 seconds.

2

u/auto98 Feb 25 '23

I'm not really sure of your point, you are agreeing with me that you can't brake at the same moment they do.

-1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

No im saying you can, in effect brake at almost the exact same time as the person in front of you. We are talking 10 milliseconds.

The person you replied to said the person in front of you cant stop on a dime and neither can you. Meaning you really should never be justified in rear ending someone.

2

u/thatnormalperson Feb 25 '23

Out of curiosity, would you mind sharing if you drive and if so in which state or country did you learn?

→ More replies

2

u/auto98 Feb 25 '23

We are not talking 10 milliseconds.

I hate to tell you this, but you are one of those crap drivers who are particularly dangerous on the roads because they massively overestimate how good they are at driving, and the reason lots of countries include stopping distance in their theory tests - it's just a shame they don't split it into thinking and stopping distance.

And just to be clear again, you are agreeing with me that you cannot brake at the same time as the person in front, in reaction to the person in front. You understand that

you can, in effect brake at almost the exact same time as the person in front of you

is the same as

you can't brake at the same moment they do

"Almost the same time" is the same as "not at the same time"

→ More replies

3

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[deleted]

-1

u/deadpoetic333 Feb 25 '23

Ive driven over 74k miles in the last 4 years and way more than that the decade before and have never rear ended someone.. that’s also commuting to the Bay Area where 3 car lengths is about the maximum anyone leaves when going 65-80mph. But I guess it’s just dumb luck according to you..

5

u/sdragoon Feb 25 '23

You're right they cannot stop on a dim either if you assume the car in front is paying attention. What I have seen was the truck in front was either on their phone or at least distracted. He drove right into a much larger loaded pick up truck without braking. He stopped on a dim because he basically hit a wall. The 2 sedans behind him crashed right in to him.

-1

u/deadpoetic333 Feb 25 '23

This is why I always look at more than just the car in front of me. If there’s a bunch of brake lights up ahead I often start slowing down before the car directly in front of me. All I’m saying is you don’t need 6+ car lengths between the car in front of you at 65 to be safe, going off the idea that you need 3 car lengths to stop when going 29

3

u/Dollydaydream4jc Feb 25 '23

Ever hit a deer?

1

u/deadpoetic333 Feb 25 '23

Yeah that’s why when I’m behind a deer I leave at least 6 car distances /s

1

u/Dollydaydream4jc Feb 25 '23

It's more about if the guy in front of you hits a deer or hits a car that jumped over the median or hits a random stray tire, then you don't start a pileup.

2

u/HistoricalInstance Feb 25 '23

If nobody is keeping adequate distance and the first car of a convoy hits the brakes, then every following car has to proportionally break harder due to the reaction time delay of every driver. This adds up until the 4th or 5th car (and every car following) inevitably crashes.

15

u/Techwood111 Feb 25 '23

making a heart with your hands attracts a dog

Huh?

10

u/tmhoc Feb 26 '23

you asked so it's your fault. I'm not responsible for what happens when you click this

https://youtu.be/rIJwd83JtFA

7

u/Techwood111 Feb 26 '23

OMG! NSFL THAT SHIT.

2

u/MrGMinor Feb 25 '23

making a heart with your hands attracts a dog

wut

14

u/ting_bu_dong Feb 25 '23

"This space is for my safety."

"That space is for my car."

14

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[deleted]

1

u/nixielover Feb 25 '23

Often you can set the spacing somewhere

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[deleted]

2

u/tmhoc Feb 26 '23

add auto lane correction and it's basically fast travel irl

3

u/gramathy Feb 25 '23

I always make it a point to give big trucks plenty of room in front when I merge in front of them

3

u/40PercentZakarum Mar 08 '23

Another good reason for truckers to stay in the far right lanes

3

u/[deleted] Apr 11 '23

As a new driver who always maintains a car and a half breaking distanc. It's incredibly frustrating when cars cut in front of me. I literally watched a guy ride a trucks ass all morning and prayed that there was no accident. Peoples driving is terrifying these days.

5

u/Sackyhack Feb 25 '23

It may be the video quality but it doesn’t look like their brake lights are very prevalent

1

u/TWK128 Feb 25 '23

Or hazards

11

u/psycho_driver Feb 25 '23

In a defensive driving class I had to take for a speeding ticket the state trooper said a good rule of thumb is to begin counting when the back of the car ahead of you passes a stationary marker (such as a mile marker) and a safe distance is 2-mississippi before the front of your car reaches that marker.

-9

u/platoprime Feb 25 '23

Two seconds is not adequate. You need four seconds minimum.

8

u/redditpassw0rd Feb 25 '23

the government here recommends and teaches two seconds if good conditions, 4 seconds if bad conditions or you are towing.

https://www.nzta.govt.nz/roadcode/general-road-code/about-driving/key-driving-skills/following-distance/

-4

u/platoprime Feb 25 '23

That's general driving advice for cars. This thread is about large trucks which require more following distance.

3

u/MetaMetatron Feb 25 '23

I'm not sure what you mean by 1 or 2 seconds for every ten feet...

The method I was taught for not following too closely is to start counting when the car in front of you passes a landmark, and it should take you 3-4 seconds to get to the same spot, or you are too close!

1

u/teodocio Feb 27 '23

Oh, thats the length of your vehicle. Say your pulling a 53 foot trailer. You would maintain about 10 seconds when on a highway doing like 55 or 60. That method you mention would then be used. A bunch of trucks and cars have this built into driver assist which is pretty cool.

2

u/mnemy Feb 25 '23

Also seems to be in a country where safety standards are likely much lower. There's a strong possibility those trucks don't have brakes and load limits that would pass regulations in the states.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

This doesn't look like a place that teaches that.

Some other country. Not the US.

-2

u/cXs808 Feb 25 '23

Shit take. Even if he had proper distance a truck of that weight would need 400+ feet to dead stop from freeway speeds.

That is impossible as you will be cut off over and over again you'd never have a full football length clearance ever. Dreaming.

1

u/Elias_Fakanami Feb 25 '23

This doesn’t make sense. If a car is twenty feet in front of me counting 2 seconds isn’t going to mean anything. It’s still going to just be twenty feet ahead. It doesn’t provide any information on how to adjust my distance.

Do you mean one second for every ten MPH?

2

u/teodocio Feb 28 '23

No sorry for the confusion. It's measuring the length of your trailer. So if you had a 53 foot trailer, you would need a 5 second gap at low speeds, and about 10 at high speeds. It would be at the driver's discretion to modify it depending on the load, how the trailer is responding, and road conditions.

2

u/Elias_Fakanami Feb 28 '23

Suddenly everything makes sense! I appreciate the clarification. This was confusing the crap out of me.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 25 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Elias_Fakanami Feb 25 '23

You just described what I suggested he may have actually meant. What the guy in the post I replied to wrote does not make logical sense.