Never sit at the back of a queue!

Originally Posted by Razor

I was in Nissan Micra and got run into by a 4x4 at a set of lights. He slammed into the nearside corner and pushed the back end of the car into the passenger seat. I dunno why but I took my foot of the brake and pushed the clutch in as it hit me. I also wrapped both arms around my head and might have uttered "oh sh*t!" Just before impact. From what they tell me the micra got spun into the intersection and hit the traffic light on the other side. I woke up next day in hospital all befuddled.

Sounds like you're very quick thinking. I've been told that the best thing to do in an accident is to cross your arms across your chest and move your feet away from the pedal area. The worst thing you can do is to try and brace yourself. I don't think I did either but I did make sure my head was back against the headrest.

Originally Posted by robchester

Pete was it a Mini that you were driving? Just that i can see a classic in your pic

I was driving an old 205 at the time. The Mini in the pic belongs to the guy the took the photo. I really don't fancy being in an accident in one. I've crashed a bmw MINI and I walked away unscathed, I think that was down to good design of the motorway barrier though (from a car drivers point of view, had I been on the bike I'd probably have ended up 15 feet below on the A20!).

Originally Posted by embee

In a car I always try to slow gradually to keep as much distance between me and the car ahead as I can, flash brake lights repeatedly (I'm sure it annoys some people), and try not to be the back of the queue if I can help it. If you have to come to a stop, leave plenty of space ahead so at least if you're rear-ended you don't end up crushed between vehicles. If there's no-one behind you then it's not causing any problems by slowing right down, if there is traffic behind you can build up your own buffer behind to protect you.

I had left a gap but closed it up in order to try and give the girl space to stop. What annoys me is that had she been better educated she'd probably have been able to stop in that distance or at the very least driven round us as there was no-one coming the other way. As it happened she stood on the brake AND tried to steer round. She sailed into the me at about 30-40 mph est with the wheels locked.

Fortunately more modern cars are built for morons. I used to be in the trade and drove many Mazdas equipped with electronic brake force distribution. Those would stop quickly and in a straight line with two wheels on gravel and two on the road, without the driver holding the steering wheel!

To add to what embee wrote...

If I approach a slowing queue of traffic on the motorway I quite often see people put on their hazard indicators on while braking, and I do the same. Seems like a good idea to me - 3 lanes of cars with brake lights and hazards on is pretty noticeable!

Never been done from behind ( ) but it`s something i`m always aware of, really don`t like sitting at lights/junctions without a stationary vehicle behind me, if there`s a car approaching me i try to judge it`s speed, see if the headlights dip i.e braking and make sure i`ve got an escape route. Saying all that i never realised i did it until i read this post and thought about it.
Sorry to thread steal but what are views on people that park up and open their car door without looking? only ask as i`ve just seen it happen in Uxbridge high street, guy opens door without looking, bang his door is compressed to half it`s size. If he didn`t see a car there`s no chance he`ll see us superior road uses

A few years ago when I worked on the bike. coming down the inside [parked cars and stopped] a truck opened his door, me >door> car> car>car> road. one mini got written off. ended up with no more than a broken clutch cable/lever.

Still filter but never against parked car/trucks

pete

Originally Posted by El Saxo

To add to what embee wrote...

If I approach a slowing queue of traffic on the motorway I quite often see people put on their hazard indicators on while braking, and I do the same. Seems like a good idea to me - 3 lanes of cars with brake lights and hazards on is pretty noticeable!

I always have & always will do this, no matter what I'm driving. To me, just makes sense. A crap load of muppets driving killing machines at 70mph+ coming towards stationary metal boxes, and in the dark, it can be hard to tell the cars in front have stopped! To me, stationary vehicles ahead on the motorway IS a hazard.

Spider, door opening... educate them As you ride past gently tug on the door, light enough so you don't get off balanced. If it's an older car, there's a chance of damaging the hinge, if it's not, it'll scare the crap out of them anyway. They'll soon learn.

Originally Posted by shop_addict

if anyone's dares to tailgate me, I just slow down more.

Jo

Lol my mate at work used to do just this and I had the pleasure of being shotgun once when he did it.
Someone got up his **** at 60 through tight country lanes so he slowed down to 50, they got even closer.
Down to 40 the guy starts weaving about and flashing his lights and honking...so he slows to 30...all the way down to 20 before the guy finally overtakes dangerously swearing his head off.

Repeat 2 more times and no-one got the point, the more up my **** you get, the slower I go, water off my back I'm not in a hurry...
Made me chuckle.

People just didn't want to back up 2 meters and go faster they just did not want to "surrender" that tiny bit of safe distance for the sake of faster progress.

Originally Posted by PsychoCannon

Lol my mate at work used to do just this and I had the pleasure of being shotgun once when he did it.
Someone got up his @rse at 60 through tight country lanes so he slowed down to 50, they got even closer.
Down to 40 the guy starts weaving about and flashing his lights and honking...so he slows to 30...all the way down to 20 before the guy finally overtakes dangerously swearing his head off.

I was driving through Shropshire and was tail gated by a guy in an Omega, he was being tail gated by a woman in a Fiesta. When we entered at village I slowed to 30 and they just got closer. They just wouldn't get the message. At a set of lights I indicated right and they still didn't back off. I braked and the Omega nose dived as the driver woke up, I let up on the brakes just a tad as he was right close.
The crunch of the Fiesta hitting the Omega actually made me laugh, probably not a nice thing to do or to think but I gave every warning. Omega guy had only missed me by inches.
I pulled into a carpark and went to buy some lunch, when I came out Omega guy and Fiesta witch had parked my Avensis in and started to rant that I had caused the accident. Fun confrontational stuff ensued.

Im very warey of this in a car. I always leave that bit of gap in front, so should anything come up, i've at least got a "chance" of either moving forward, or to the side so to avoid being rear ended.

Always just looking in the rear view mirror if im last in the queue.

I've got one of the windscreen washer jets misaligned (not by me) but it squirts right over the top, do that to a tailgater and they back off.