Quote:
Originally Posted by Draigflag
Also you may notice in some accidents, after a collision the car will then shoot off again. This is because you instinctly brace in an impact, and usually accidentally hit the gas as your legs go completely rigid (as does the rest of your body) another reasons why automatics are dangerous.
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Ehhh... I think that's a theory, but I'd wager that in most minor collisions the driver is slamming on the brakes. Which is why most rear-end situations are worse than they should be. Look at the video of the T-Bone incident. They both slammed on their brakes. The driver who got hit is lucky she didn't get hit in the Driver's door. I'd bet if she had slammed on the gas instead of the brake, she may have reduced the amount of damage done.
Going back to a rear-end situation- Assuming the victim of the rear end sees the other vehicle coming up behind them too quickly, instead of standing on the brake, they could let off and attempt to roll to the side/shoulder.
Same goes for the driver who is inevitably about to rear end someone. Instead of slamming into the other driver directly in the center of the mass, I was taught to steer to the right (in most cases, left if there's an empty lane) shoulder to either A- avoid impact entirely, or B- clip corners instead of head-on smash. Again, split second decision making is necessary, and not everyone thinks about it.
I've been behind the wheel with friends who flipped out when the guy in front of me slammed on their brakes last minute. I veered right into the shoulder and avoided contact completely. It bought me that extra foot or two of ground to come to a complete stop. They all thought for sure we were going to impact. None of them had ever heard of moving away from the impending doom.
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