Dense Fog, One eyed Monsters, and Stealth Cyclists

[very-near]

Well no, they're not. A shunt from behind is easily capable of knocking your foot off the brake.

Not in my experience - unless they are sat on a motorcycle and you physically connect with the foot on the brake lever with your car.

Regardless, your insurance company will ask whether you had your handbrake on. If you did, you're in a much safer position.

They will ? Let us not forget that a shunt from behind is not the fault of someone sat in a stationary vehicle!

Also consider that if the stationary vehicle isn't anchored to the floor, then the kinetic transfer to it will be substantially less.

The occupants of the vehicle being hit are likely to be injured far more seriously if the energy transfer cannot be reduced and they are right in the firing line of a vehicle which initiates the shunt.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Oh, Linf ... just accept that you might be wrong on this one and let's try not to divert it all into another pointless 80 page argument about bugger all.

 

[theclaud]

Bad timing. It could have been 1/2 minute later, and him ending up under my wheels. Given I wasn't the only one on the road outside the newsagents, he showed no sign of slowing down. He was definately a candidate for the Darwin award.

Serendipitous! May I asked if you were pleased with the demise I chose for you in the Cafe thread on bumping off CCers?

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

FWIW I know someone who was prosecuted for driving with due care and attention because his car was sat without the handbrake on at the back of a motorway traffic jam when he was rammed from behind.

All that sitting with your foot on the brake does when in stationary traffic is light up a whacking great set of LEDs in the face of the person behind you - because you are too sodding lazy to pull up a lever on your left hand side.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

FWIW I know someone who was prosecuted for driving with due care and attention because his car was sat without the handbrake on at the back of a motorway traffic jam when he was rammed from behind.

All that sitting with your foot on the brake does when in stationary traffic is light up a whacking great set of LEDs in the face of the person behind you - because you are too sodding lazy to pull up a lever on your left hand side.

Yes. May I propose that this is all that needs to be said on this subject and that we can all move on now?

 

[Rhythm Thief]

In a motorway situation, if your stationary, planting your foot on your brake is the very minimum to alert oncoming traffic. As is sticking on your hazards etc. Perhaps the motorway is an exception?

(FWIW, I do take the foot of the brake in a queue of traffic, as you can see the LEDs lighting up the face behind and appreciate it might be annoying)

Fine, but put the handbrake on first. Have we covered everything now?

 

[very-near]

Yes, they will. They'll ask you if you were stationary or crawling, and whether you had your handbrake on.

They recognise (as you might want to) that if you're in a line of traffic then there's usually a car in front of you. If you're not doing something which could minimise the chance of you hitting the car in front or the damage if you do, then liability gets complicated.

Don't argue with me about it linfy. It's not my doing, that's just the way it is.

In the case of my shunt, it was wet. I was approaching the lights in a 40 limit. They changed to red, I looked in my mirror, saw the car behind me in my lane, I braked to a halt level with the line. I looked in my mirror once I'd done this and I saw this maestro with its wheels locked and skidding into the back of me. I didn't have a chance to apply the brake between stopping and the impact. I would rather the vehicle roll on impact than take the full force of it and concertina with me in it.

Worrying about anyone else around me is secondary when I am directly in the firing line, and that should be the concern of the dozy cow who wasn't looking in front of her when my brake lights went on and caused the impact in the first place.


View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFNe_pFZrsA
= a Newtons cradle in action

 

[Shaun]

Thread end chopped back. Not sure where that came from ... as you were ...

 

[fossyant]

Hopefully.....sheesh.............

 

[Norm]

Thread end chopped back. Not sure where that came from ... as you were ...

I wonder if, in doing so, you have removed Linf's swansong and hidden from view the reason why he's not around at the moment.

 

[theclaud]

I wonder if, in doing so, you have removed Linf's swansong and hidden from view the reason why he's not around at the moment.

A swansong is when you only have one of them. That was the (first) reprise of the enflouncement.

 

[upsidedown]

A swansong is when you only have one of them. That was the (first) reprise of the enflouncement.

Enflouncement, i like that word a lot.

 

[theclaud]

Enflouncement, i like that word a lot.

Thanks! It might also work well in the French form, as enfloncemment.