Automatic or Manual gear?

[Mize]

Your supposed to keep a safe distance to the car infront of you. If you tailgate someone, that person can slam the breaks, your gonna crash into them, and guess what? You will have to pay. If you hit a car thats infront of you, its your fault by default in the eyes of insurance companies (and in the eyes of EU law). The driver in front of you may have breaked without reason, guess what, he can break for whatever reason he likes, its YOUR responsibilty to keep a save distance to the car infront of you, not my responsibility to accelerate or let you past me in order not to get tailgated.

This is not true in the US. Intentionally causing an accident from in front of another car (slamming the brakes for no reason) is criminal here.

As I said, tailgating is just as moronic as speed-capping in the passing lane, but that doesn't make your behavior correct. Also, most speed limits in the US are legally termed "flexible" so that it's the cop's discretion:

If you're doing 76 mph in a 70 mph the cop can determine that is reasonable and safe. By the same toke on a snowy day he or she can ticket you for going 60 in a 70 since he or she can determine that speed is not safe. This is also true throughout Germany.

 

[Mize]

Dont US have a law that states "keep a safe distance to the car infront of you?"

On the other side of the atlantic, if you hit somebody in the back, its your own damn fault for not keeping a safe distance to the car infront of you. Meaning, if i slam my brakes and you hit me, your gonna pay.

Yes. In this situation the rear driver would likely be charged with reckless driving (for tailgating) and the front driver with vehicular assault (assuming there were witnesses).

Causing an accident always trumps reckless driving so the fines and jail time on the vehicular assault are actually quite a bit higher and, as I said, they can escalate to attempted murder or manslaughter.

Think about it - one person (the tailgater) is being an asshole. The second (slamming brakes) is trying to hurt people or cause an accident and physical harm.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Now just for clearifications, its not that i dont let people past me. I generally do. But if traffic prohibits me from changing lanes (lanes in norway dont leave any room for passing on the same lane, if the road only has 1 lane each way, the only way is to pass in the lane reserved for the other way) and a person tailgates me, im gonna slam the brakes.

Now, i dont actually slam the brakes all the way down, since my car has rather powerful brakes, i slow down fast to make the driver avare that he should piss off. (So slamming the brakes was a bit of an overexageration).

One one occasion this has resulted in a crash, where the other driver was furious, and ended up paying the repairs for my car.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

One one occasion this has resulted in a crash, where the other driver was furious, and ended up paying the repairs for my car.

And that didn't tell you that breaking hard when someone is tailgating you is a bad idea? What if the guy drives into the back of you and shunts you onto the other side of the road into oncoming traffic?

Better to increase the distance between you and the car in front, it will give you sufficient stopping distance for yourself and the idiot behind you, and also really irritate the tailgater.

 

[pjbliverpool]

One one occasion this has resulted in a crash, where the other driver was furious, and ended up paying the repairs for my car.

Lol

At the end of the day, if the guy was unable to stop because he was driving to close to you then the crash was his fault IMO.

Ok, it was your fault too for slamming on but whats to say you didn't have a geniune reason for slamming on? A kid may have just ran out in front of you for example. The guy behind was an accident waiting to happen, hopefully you taught him a lesson so that the same thing doesn't happen again with more serious consequenses (shunting you into the person you slammed on to avoid hitting for example).

If it were me, I would have said a dog ran into the road and I slammed on assuming the guy behond was driving properly and would be able to stop in time

 

[Cheezdoodles]

And that didn't tell you that breaking hard when someone is tailgating you is a bad idea? What if the guy drives into the back of you and shunts you onto the other side of the road into oncoming traffic?

Better to increase the distance between you and the car in front, it will give you sufficient stopping distance for yourself and the idiot behind you, and also really irritate the tailgater.

It didn't give me all that much more life visdom no. (Its not like i do stuff like this at high speeds where the risk of me getting severely injured, besides i usually go faster than most people on highways)

I think it did give that moron a nice $20,000 lesson about tailgating, one that he will not soon forget.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

Lol

At the end of the day, if the guy was unable to stop because he was driving to close to you then the crash was his fault IMO.

Ok, it was your fault too for slamming on but whats to say you didn't have a geniune reason for slamming on? A kid may have just ran out in front of you for example. The guy behind was an accident waiting to happen, hopefully you taught him a lesson so that the same thing doesn't happen again with more serious consequenses (shunting you into the person you slammed on to avoid hitting for example).

If it were me, I would have said a dog ran into the road and I slammed on assuming the guy behond was driving properly and would be able to stop in time

Exactly. That was my point aswell, i wouldn't say i tried to hit the car behind me, but tried avoiding something or whatever

 

[Mize]

The proper etiquette is to tap the brake pedal a few times with the left foot (right still on gas) to signal the behind driver that he or she is being an ass. Causing an accident in order to point out that someone is driving in such as way that they might cause an accident is amazingly stupid.

As I said, if your scenario happened here and the other driver had a witness, you'd be handcuffed and charged.

As for the two-lane road thing, most heavily trafficked roads in the US have two or more lanes each way (some might have five). On two lane roads you may pass on the opposite side when it's clear and you have an unobstructed view. Tailgating to encourage the ahead driver to drive faster is not permitted.

 

[Mize]

If it were me, I would have said a dog ran into the road and I slammed on assuming the guy behond was driving properly and would be able to stop in time

And you would be lying which, in this case, would add obstruction of justice to your vehicular assault charge if the latter could be proved.

How mature and civilized.

And if they other guy was a dickhead father with kids on board who were killed by your games I'm sure you'd not lose a wink of sleep either. So much to admire in you guys.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

The proper etiquette is to tap the brake pedal a few times with the left foot (right still on gas) to signal the behind driver that he or she is being an ass. Causing an accident in order to point out that someone is driving in such as way that they might cause an accident is amazingly stupid.

Thank you! I couldn't have said it better.

 

[Mize]

Thank you! I couldn't have said it better.

I should add that if said asshat tailgater still tailgates after the polite method I just go slower and slower (no quick braking and never more than a few mph below the speed limit). This sends a message but also allows them to rocket past me at their earliest convenience so they can get to their destination a full thirty seconds before I do. It rarely happens since I tend to drive fast, but it's a much safer (and not criminal) way of handling the situation.

 

[ShaidarHaran]

I like your approach to the situation, Mize. Seems a whole lot more sensible and considerate than the "other method".

 

[pjbliverpool]

And you would be lying which, in this case, would add obstruction of justice to your vehicular assault charge if the latter could be proved.

How mature and civilized.

Yeah good luck proving that one.

Anyway, I didn't say I would brake heavily to put off someone tail gating. Like I said in an earlier post, my method is so simply slow down (my taking my foot off the accelerator) until the guy backs off. And if he doesn't back off then he stays at 20mph the rest until he's able to take over.

And if they other guy was a dickhead father with kids on board who were killed by your games I'm sure you'd not lose a wink of sleep either. So much to admire in you guys.

Again, I didn't say I would do that, and certainly wouldn't do it if the car had kids in. But frankly, if i'm not the one doing it, i'm quite happy to see some moron get it done to him and watch him write off his car.

Tail gating is stupid, but its when its done to deliberatly be intimidating that really gets me. Especially if the person being intimidated is a single women who is already doing the speed limit on a single lane road (something my gf encounters often).

 

[MfA]

As I said, tailgating is just as moronic as speed-capping in the passing lane

There is a slight difference, the latter is only dangerous when someone is speeding to a large extent or you find someone prone to road rage ... the former is dangerous period.

PS. getting overly upset over losing a couple of seconds on your trip time is moronic as well. Few things in this world manage to knock as many IQ points off a person as putting them behind the wheel of a car.

 

[digitalwanderer]

I love manual transmission for tailgaters. You should see the panic on their faces as I drop 10-15 miles an hour by downshifting without my brake lights going on.

I always politely tap me brake lights after they've recovered their panic and increased their follow distance, just to let 'em know I did it on purpose.

 

[Davros]

I just press the hidden button on my DB5 and deploy the oil slick

 

[Xmas]

Your supposed to keep a safe distance to the car infront of you. If you tailgate someone, that person can slam the breaks, your gonna crash into them, and guess what? You will have to pay. If you hit a car thats infront of you, its your fault by default in the eyes of insurance companies (and in the eyes of EU law). The driver in front of you may have breaked without reason, guess what, he can break for whatever reason he likes, its YOUR responsibilty to keep a save distance to the car infront of you, not my responsibility to accelerate or let you past me in order not to get tailgated.

That's not quite correct. If it can be proven that you intentionally endangered others you may not only have to pay part of the damages but also face criminal charges. I'm most familiar with German law, but I expect it's the same in other EU countries.

Oh, and don't brake for squirrels. You will be held responsible if you caused a crash trying to avoid a collision with a small animal.

I should clarify: I'm not advocating tailgaiting - it is a stupid practice that can lead to accidents. My beef here is about intent. Driving fast and a little too close to other vehicles in an attempt to get them to move out of the way is not done with the intent to injure, unlike the lead vehicle in this situation slamming on its brakes.

I don't think the latter is done with the intent to injure either.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

That's not quite correct. If it can be proven that you intentionally endangered others you may not only have to pay part of the damages but also face criminal charges. I'm most familiar with German law, but I expect it's the same in other EU countries.

Its for all practical reasons impossible to prove.

Oh, and don't brake for squirrels. You will be held responsible if you caused a crash trying to avoid a collision with a small animal.
.

Are you sure this applies to all situations? Sounds like highway rules, not general. If im on a normal road and break for an animal and somebody slams into me from behind, thats his fault, atleast in norway (again, he shows reckless driving because he was to close to me) you cannot break for small animals on highways aspecially the autoban, but surely this doesn't apply on normal (50km\h) roads?

If i drive on a normal (lets say 60km\h) road, and an animal is in the street, i can brake down. If you hit me in the back, thats your fault for being to close to me. I understand if i break for an animal while im on the highway, but surely this cannot apply to all situations.

Then again norway have special rules, as people dying because they hit a Deer walking in the road is not to uncommon..

 

[_xxx_]

Squirrel-Thingy goes for every situation here. Hitting it will get you insurance money, since thus you can prove it.

 

[chavvdarrr]

Are you allowed to hit brakes for a cow or you must scream "Banzai" ?
And decides what is "too small animal to hit brakes" ?!