whose fault?

Yesterday I was out in a work car, pulled out of a service station, was slowly getting up speed, a guy came rushing up behind me, beeped at me, so i tapped the brakes (forgotting how sensitive new car brakes are) and he slammed into me at at least 70km.

Focked his car and did a fair bit of damage to work car. Got whiplash - fun times!

Whose fault is it really?

your fault

50km zone?

80km

yours

well I dunno, from the way it's described it sounds like he was up your butt due to aggressive driving as opposed to you pulling out in front of him... In that case he should be able to stop if you stop. But was he?

I mean, he had time to toot, was that like a "Farrrrrrrk!!!!" swerve at the crazy bitch who just pulled out in front of me toot or a "fuck you I'm gonna be a cunt now" toot.

Not necessarily.. Were you pulling out when he hit you or were you already driving along? If you were still pulling out, your fault. If you were already on the road and driving, its his.

I was well away from pulling out - he wasnt there when I pulled out, it was that I was taking my time speeding up, he was obviously going faster and caught up with me.

I shouldn't have tapped the brakes, but didn't honestly think he'd smack me.

Road rules are that you have to keep your distance so as to be able to stop in the vehicle in front stops unexpectedly. So if he was just being an aggressive cunt he got his just deserts. If however you didn't give him much of a chance to make room by pulling out in front of him then it's your fault. Sounds like it's his from your description.

she applied her brakes randomly in a 70km/h zone. Insurers will be having fun with this

Yeah thats the issue... I wouldn't have applied them if he wasn't being a c**t, but as he was being agressive I did - forgetting the brakes in a 2011 car will be uber sensitive (used to driving my 94 isuzu) and he was so close he got me...

Did you tell anyone that you applied the breaks for that reason? You can always say you braked because of some other reason. NEVER admit to breaking because some cunt was on your ass ...

If the person in front of you brakes and you ram their arse, then its your fault for following too close and not paying attention.

But, that might change if the person in front has pulled out, then brakes, and fails to give the person behind them sufficient room to stop.

If there is provision in the law for fault to be placed on a person who, by pulling out and braking, gives the person behind them insufficient distance in which to stop, then its going to get complicated.

The obvious lesson is that its very stupid to brake in front of somone too close, you're the architect of your own misery if they hit you

Do as Reaction says, but get this thread deleted first.

I was under the impression that in a nose to tail accident.... the nose at impact is at fault 100% of the time. As it is the followers responsibility to keep a sufficient distance where they can stop in time.

The way you have described it the villian sounds like a typical kiwi_driver myroad dangerous asshole, perhaps as suggested quit admitting you hit the brakes to piss them off, but Im not convinced it will make any difference . Not the way Ive had that rule explained to me anyway...and it kind of makes sense, What the fuck are you supposed to do about someone who hits you from behind?

How do we know she didnt pull out in such a way as to give the person behind her insufficient room in which to stop - made worse by braking in front of them?

The matter can probably be decided by measuring the distance from where she pulled out to the accident location.

I was at least 1km up the road... infact when I said to the guy I was driving slowly as i had recently pulled out of service station - he went wtf thats ages back.. i was slowly getting up to speed

For sure....but i was just going on how she said "I was well away from pulling out" The way the accident could occur in this way and be the heros fault is possible.... but much less likely than the other way round

What sort of ponderous sounding vehicle is this jess? Some sort horse truck lumping 4WD?

you need driving lessons regardless if it took you 1km to get up to 70km/h

Um, nah, Toyota Yaris or something, 4 door work car... I don't know - wasn't paying attention to what kind of car it was (my work car that is)

Not saying it took me a km to get to 70km, just saying at 1km after service station I wasn't pushing 85km, and obviously driver behind me was wanting to hoof it

Pretty obviously his fault at that kind of distance

being a horsey person n'all.

Well if it was ages back then he is clearly at fault. No, you shouldn't put your foot on the brake BUT people do that a lot as a warning. The guy sounds like a ya typical douche.

Anyone who brakes in front of a driver that's tailgating them needs their head read.

You have to be prepared for a crash, and be willing to defend yourself from assault. It's nuts.

yup. it's completely idiotic

I'm not condoning it but it appears lots of people do it. Usually they don't brake but flash their brake lights by tapping the brake. Aggressive driving is idiotic too.

Edit: When I say appears that lots of people do it, I really just mean I've heard of it happening several times in different circles. *shrug*

If anyone tailgates me, I always slow down to about 90% of the speed limit and aggressively change lanes if they try to get past me. Is it safe? No. But I'm going to fucking win that battle

no surprises there

Haha Yak, yeah I've done the old tap the brakes thing before back when I had a student car, wouldn't catch me doing it in my last car though haha.. but the c&%t deserved it. (just accept that fact don't make me justify it). The guy nearly forced me off the road after that haha..

I rammed a car and did a runner utilising the top gun trick once too.. can't believe I did that.. in Manurewa of all places... but thats another story..

I agree with Maestro..

I used to get into awesome road-rage situations all the time. Had to drive away several times when people get out of their car with a weapon, once had a golf ball thrown right at my drivers door as I was driving off.

One time I was city-bound from south auckland on the motorway in the left-most lane when this chick behind me swerved out into the on-ramp and tried to skip ahead a dozen cars that way. I thought "fuck that, she's not getting away", and followed her, passed her using the shoulder lane, then sat on the breaks and forced her to go slower than every other lane, and always pre-empted her lane switching etc. One one of them, she actually tried to force herself into a gap in front of me and touched the side of my car... I got ahead of her again and reversed straight into her

That pissed her off something chronic, started making all sorts of wavey movements and using her phone. I evaded her at the next exit though and never saw her again. Good times..

It doesnt matter whether you used your breaks or not, fact of the matter is he smashed into the back of you. The law states its his fault.

Just for future reference though, if a dickhead is coming up fast behind you, dont slam the breaks.

Totally his fault. Claim there was a cat on the road or something.

should acknowledge Re-Action & Jono though, don't tell anyone you did it deliberately and lets hope the forum is as obscure as it seems to be these days.

Hahaha, I just saw your post, Yak. Fuck Im glad Ive never had a run in with you.

In this situation I am inclined to blame the woman driver.



gc.

this happened to me, sadly i was the following car. driving along in heavy traffic the a car 2 cars in front slammed on the brakes in order to get a carpark, just stopped dead in the middle of the road, me and the guy in front both swerved and braked to miss him but the guy directly in front of me hit the curb and i hit him. the blame was placed on me as i didn't allow enough room to stop. so even though stopping in the road ain't a bright move, it could have been a child or a dog that caused the driver to slam on the brakes..

So in your case it has to be the other drivers fault.

lol doesn't everyone do this??

. But in saying that people generally don’t fk with me as I have my Honda with the mags and tings and I look like a boyracer so people generally keep away (I don’t think my car is bangin or anything btw haha but it makes people weary).. I drove my sisters car the other day a cute lil hatchback thing and people were cutting me off here there and everywhere.. People are fkers on the road especially men aged 16-90 they think they own the roads.. Once I had my highbeams on and I thought this guy was going to kill me he was so angry it’s like wtf dude calm the fuk dooooooownnnnnnn.
Anyhoo I could ramble on for hours..

I think he’s totes in the wrong there missjess I can imagine what happened too though you shouldn’t have done the brake thing that’s asking for trouble.

Caught myself doing something similar to someone who was driving 85 in the fast lane last week. Got around him by going on the inside lane when the car travelling at the exact same speed as him separated out, then got back into the fast lane and dropped the game down to 70km.

"Your move, buddy!" *Dixon*

Heh I'm a fan of the slow right down thang too. I once did it to a car following too close for about 10km doing about 30kph Fuckers

hahahahahahahahahahaha <3 QT

Yaksha that is terrible

I'm a fan of speeding up when people try overtake me on suburban streets at 5am on the way to work.

If someone gates me I try to slow down and time it so that they miss the next lights as I gun through them at the last second. It's just like a rolling start from pole position in a karting.

haha awesome you read my rant..
I'm cracking myself up today..

This is a great technique- you must be staring in the rear view mirror too so they can see your beady little eyes as they have to stop.

Yeah fuck that, he's totally in the wrong. You were braking for a pothole/debris/animal/roaming child or something, and it's his responsibility to be able to stop in time.

Hell, you can also say you were nervous because of his aggressive driving and decided to slow down to encourage him to go past, that's perfectly fine too.

Regardless of what I said above which applies to this case, for the most part yes. However I have argued my way out of full responsibility before.

and heres me thinking this was an earthquake thread!

i dont think that it is a 100% rule that the person behind is at fault, its more like a general rule with some exceptions.

yeah this exactly. Lots of people think they are good drivers because they can handle themselves on the road so fuck everyone else. That makes them a BAD driver. Just because you know what your doing, doesn't mean the nervous drivers around you do and your stupid aggressive actions are likely to make them do something dumb in response.

"Tapped" the brakes?


I have heard of a few cases where people who put on their brakes get charged but that said, I wouldnt admit to any fault.

this type of question seems to come up a lot on here

as others have mentioned, he is at fault - he was driving aggressively and rammed into the back of your vehicle - he should have been managing his speed so as not to crash into you

in nose-to-tails there is a strong presumption that the person who goes into the back of you is at fault. that presumption is hard to rebut. not impossible, but almost.

cbf reading whole thread... but pretty sure when someone hits you from behind, it's their fault.

its societies fault... they are both victims