🚀 go-pugleaf

c.c.eiftj@06.usenet.us.com (Rahul Dhesi) wrote:
>Gumbyy@ticnet.com (Marc) writes:

>>Seconded.  A friend of mine was sideswiped by a truck.  It simply was
>>missing its exit and without signal exited into the space where my
>>friend was driving.

>Yes, it could happen.  Maybe it was not preventable.  But chances
>are that it was.

Nope.  Given the average accident, I would believe that.  But if you
were to stipulate to the facts as presented, then there was little, if
any, that could have been done.

So, are you saying that as presented it appears preventable by the
person struk, or are you calling me a liar?

>>I was in one where I was stopped at a red light, and so was the car in
>>front of me and the car behind.  The light turned green, and the car
>>behind me accelerated briskly.  They didn't even wait for the car in
>>front of me to move.  There was no damage to either vehicle, but there
>>was a definate bump.  One lane each way, cars coming the opposite way
>>and a curb to the right, How should someone avoid that?

>Perhaps it was not preventable by you -- but we need more details.

What details?  I'll give them.  I don't remember the street names for
reference, as it was in a city foreign to me.

>I
>will tell you what I normally do at red lights:  I stay a generous
>distance from the next vehicle, and when the light turns green, I start
>moving and pull slightly closer to the next vheicle, then let it
>accelerate away from me to my normal following distance of 2-3 seconds.
>Sounds stupid, but it decreases the chances of the guy behind hitting
>me.  I don't even do it consciously any more -- it's habit.  

Define "generous" in feet.  I leave more space than average, but when
someone is paying absolutely no attention to their driving and
accelerates until they hit something without looking in front of them,
then there is no amount of distance that could have been left to
prevent it.

She even stated that she didn't look at all.  She was on the way to
her baby shower and was engrosed in conversation with her passenger.

>To put this in slightly different words:  Since I have no control over
>the buffer zone behind me when I am stopped, I compensate by increasing
>the buffer zone ahead of me, then equalizing the two zones when I begin
>moving.

How big is the buffer zone?  Are you preventing people from making it
through short lights by leaving more than average space?

Marc
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