I managed to stop, shame about the driver behind me!

[Extreme_One]

My car:

 

 

The car in front stopped abruptly, but her brake lights weren't working, I managed to react in time and I'd almost brought the car to a halt when the car behind drove into the back of me.

He was way too close, and wasn't even looking at the road ahead.

As the car behind hit me I was shunted into the car in front, which ended up with minor damage.

So yeah that was fun! 🫤

[Mojo1010]

That's a shame, hard luck mate. 

The majority of accidents like this are always avoidable given good weather condition, too many drivers error. Not your fault, but other driver can end up costing u cash and time. 

[TonyHSD]

What a bad luck., the Corolla likely to be written off, and now in these difficult times this is the last thing that anyone wants to happen. The positive side though, you may get a good payout and put an order for a 2023 ts. The golf driver obviously been chasing you behind, the modern keep up with traffic flow. A good distance between all cars would have resulted no accident at all. 

[Cyker]

Yeah I've had that happen to me before, not a fun situation...

Hopefully parts can be sourced quickly for yours to be repaired, but if the manufacturing delays are anything to go by it may take a while  

It's one thing I'm scared off with the auto-braking system in my Mk4 as I do get tailgated a lot - My normal defence is to leave a bigger gap to the car in front so I never have to brake abruptly, but that won't help if the car decides to brake abruptly itself!!

I suppose when all cars have AEBs it won't be such a problem, but it'll probably take over a decade for it to filter down to the sort of drivers who need it!

[Rhymes with Paris]

Aye, and it's so easy to leave a good gap in front.

But of course, you cannot control the distance of the car behind.

I am thinking of installing a 5 metre fibre glass pole at the back of the Yaris maybe an old fishing rod, horizontally, with a super bright Battery strobing push bike light on the end of it.

That or buying an old battered transit full of dents all over it, they steer well clear then.

[Cyker]

Hah, that reminds me, after we saw Mad Max Fury Road, we were joking about putting rusty spikes all over our cars to encourage other drivers to keep a safe distance, maybe hire a war boy to sit in the back and scowl at tailgaters!  

I also recall many years ago I saw a cyclist who had a laser grid projecting a red box on the road around their bike, and thought that was genius. Would be a cool thing to have projecting behind me to show what a 2 second gap looked like. Extra points if the laser cut through the bonnet of the car behind if they got too close  

Alas I suspect such a thing would not be approved or even legal for road use...

[Bper]

Not nice when this happens but the car looks repairable, the positive no one was injured. 

[Rhymes with Paris]

4 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Hah, that reminds me, after we saw Mad Max Fury Road, we were joking about putting rusty spikes all over our cars to encourage other drivers to keep a safe distance, maybe hire a war boy to sit in the back and scowl at tailgaters!  

I also recall many years ago I saw a cyclist who had a laser grid projecting a red box on the road around their bike, and thought that was genius. Would be a cool thing to have projecting behind me to show what a 2 second gap looked like. Extra points if the laser cut through the bonnet of the car behind if they got too close  

Alas I suspect such a thing would not be approved or even legal for road use...

Another way is to buy a diesel that puts out thick clouds of unburnt diesel forcing the following car to swiftly switch to the recirculating air to avoid being choked.

Not very environmentally friendly I know, but must be legal, as there are loads of them round here, it sure keeps me well back.

Or, I was reading about your old mate Kahn, who is driven around in a £300,000 armoured range rover,5 litre and all , last week's telegraph.

Probably has rear gunners too.

[Derek.w]

Lets look on the bright side that is you can walk away from the accedent You Still Alive.

[Roy124]

I know a company that tried to market a gunfire simulator.  The idea was to use a non lethal effect to deter vehicle attacks in Iraq. 

The tailgaters I hate are the truck drivers intent on overtaking the truck in front of you.  Having overtaken you they pull into your safe space. 

[Chriss27]

Hope  that’s repairable. We had an issue with damage to front end, so new front bumper, bonnet and hybrid Badge sensor, interior damage under bonnet and was  fixed by insurance. 

[Hylen]

Idiot drivers tailgating, hope he learnt his lesson.

[WALLOP]

If i get tailgated i either temporarily put my lights on so that they think i am braking or keep using the windscreen washer to cover their windscreen in excess water and hopefully ***** them off enough to either hold back or overtake me. 😄

[Big_D]

On 9/11/2022 at 9:15 PM, Rhymes with Paris said:

Or, I was reading about your old mate Kahn, who is driven around in a £300,000 armoured range rover,5 litre and all , last week's telegraph.

I wonder if he pays the ULEZ charge or if his £300,000 armoured Range Rover is exempt ??? 😁

After what he's done to London, I suspect he may need the armoured protection 😀

[forkingabout]

7 hours ago, WALLOP said:

keep using the windscreen washer to cover their windscreen in excess water and hopefully ***** them off enough to either hold back or overtake me. 😄

Used to do that when I had my old Peugeot 405 - as it had headlamp washers fitted it also had the larger 6.5 litre washer fluid reservoir so plenty of ammo under the bonnet 🤣

[Cyker]

22 hours ago, Big_D said:

I wonder if he pays the ULEZ charge or if his £300,000 armoured Range Rover is exempt ??? 😁

After what he's done to London, I suspect he may need the armoured protection 😀

Hah, very much a one rule for him and one rule for us kind of guy. He's definitely no friend of drivers; His various schemes have increased road pollution levels as much as they've generated extra revenue for him from driver fines... No doubt he'll use that as justification to extend the ULEZ to all of London. Nothing like a self-fulfilling prophesy... 

 

22 hours ago, WALLOP said:

If i get tailgated i either temporarily put my lights on so that they think i am braking or keep using the windscreen washer to cover their windscreen in excess water and hopefully ***** them off enough to either hold back or overtake me. 😄

The washer trick works amazingly well - Apparently tailgaters are like cats and don't like being splashed with water  

[TonyHSD]

Best for tailgating is to reduce speed more and create extra space between you and the leading vehicle on the front in case of emergency situations like this one. Even if you need to stop quickly the tailgater will stop in your bumper and you will slow down both cars with less damage. , unfortunately accidents can not be always avoided. Biggest mistake while you have a tailgater behind is to try to drive faster to accommodate their need for speed, then the risk of crash goes 10 times higher because no matter how fast you drive there is always some I…t who will chase you and want to drive faster. 

[Big_D]

Whenever I get a tailgater, I increase the distance between the car in front, to create extra space, exactly as @TonyHSD says. I also tend to stick to the speed limit. I pay my road tax and insurance, and I am just as entitled, as the tailgater, to use the road. 

I saw this and thought I would copy and paste

They welded a pipe wrench onto the back bumper of their truck to warn tailgaters that if they get too close, this wrench will fly off and break your windshield. Of course, because it’s welded on, it won’t happen, but the threat is still there.

The original article is here

https://parentinfluence.com/funny-engineers/46/

[2badmice]

I don't see the Corolla as a total loss, but then again I'm not your insurance company.  What I would say is that they may blame you for hitting the Fiesta, whilst you are claiming for the damage caused by the VW behind. 
 

We don't know what damage the VW did behind your rear bumper, have you looked to see if the boot floor has been lifted?

What we do know is that this is done a favour to the VW, as that paint job is abhorrent.

 

[Roy124]

Son in Law was tailed on Wednesday on the A34.  Classic stop start traffic. He then accelerated, traffic stopped, he braked, she was accelerating. 

His Volvo has damaged bumper, tailgate, and car sensors report additional damage all along the near side.  The Mondeo Estate was a write off. 

[Rhymes with Paris]

They should be flogged at least, and then have to sit an extended driving test lasting 5 hours with a strict, grumpy examiner,who is having an off day.

Preferably an ex military/police type who takes no crap.

The cost paid by the tailgate fiend,say £1000 for a first offence, and all damage paid for in addition by the driver, not insurance.

Other than that, I am fairly tolerant of poor driving, it happens every single time I venture out on the road.🥶

 

[Auris James]

Awful thing to happen. I don't like being tailgated.

Had one once and when pulled up at the lights put my auto lever into R to show the reversing lights of my Volvo 940 estate for a few seconds. At the next red light kept 6 feet back so got the message and didn't tailgate me.

[Cyker]

2 hours ago, 2badmice said:

I don't see the Corolla as a total loss, but then again I'm not your insurance company.  What I would say is that they may blame you for hitting the Fiesta, whilst you are claiming for the damage caused by the VW behind. 
 

We don't know what damage the VW did behind your rear bumper, have you looked to see if the boot floor has been lifted?

What we do know is that this is done a favour to the VW, as that paint job is abhorrent.

 

Should be fine - In my experience, it's the person at the back who gets all the blame for both cars in front in such situations. It would be exceedingly difficult to hold the middle car responsible for being punted into the car in front by the car behind.

 

1 hour ago, Roy124 said:

Son in Law was tailed on Wednesday on the A34.  Classic stop start traffic. He then accelerated, traffic stopped, he braked, she was accelerating. 

His Volvo has damaged bumper, tailgate, and car sensors report additional damage all along the near side.  The Mondeo Estate was a write off. 

This is one of the reasons I move off very slowly 'on idle' and let a gap build in front of me in stop-start traffic - I always see morons in SUVs behind me not paying attention, then panic when they see a gap build in front of them and panic accelerate to 'keep up' and get uncomfortably close when they over-compensate and have to brake sharply.

By moving off more slowly, I find it gives them more chance to notice that traffic has started moving and, as I've not moved off so far, they are forced to move off more slowly too, so they can't build up momentum.

The buffer in front also means I rarely have to brake sharply, or sometimes at all - On a good day I can slowly roll through the person in front stop-starting without stopping myself, which helps with the mpg!  

One of the side-effects of me becoming One Of Them (i.e. a brake-light blinder  ) is it also gives another signal to the person behind that I'm moving; In my manual neutral+handbrake days, I could move off and the person behind wouldn't notice because my brake lights would be off already - Many times I could be past the junction and away before they realized I'd moved!  

If I do get a dedicated tailgater I either move even slower, at sub-1st gear speeds, or use the washer jet trick - Usually at least one of these will get someone behind to back-off!

 

[Roy124]

In Cyprus once there was a 10 car crash and shunt.  The police charged every car including the first 😂. 

He for stopping suddenly, the rest either inattention or failing to apply the brakes. 

On slowing moving off, ACC  is very good at that. 

[Cyker]

To be fair I've seen similar collisions on the A406 a few times! The police rarely seem to get involved tho'.

Interesting your ACC moves off slowly - Mine doesn't!!  What it does is start to move slowly... then very quickly builds up to full-bore acceleration up to the set speed! It's one of the reasons I don't use it except in really boringly slow stop-start traffic and on fast flowing motorway/A-roads. It just has no finesse! Even with braking, if I'm e.g. doing 70mph and there's a truck far in front of me, instead of slowing down well in advance, it stays at 70mph until it gets within however many bars you set it to then slows down very abruptly! I usually disable it and let the car coast down to truck speed then re-engage it  as it's much smoother and energy efficient that way than relying on the system to do so.

When the car goes in for servicing I usually ask if there are firmware updates for the various systems to may make it better, but they always say no...