Horrifying pile up on the motorway

[tw]

Originally Posted by glatt

If traffic is heavy, then it's not about you and the driver in back of you, it's about you and the entire stream of traffic behind you. You can actually cause an accident in heavy traffic just by braking suddenly.

This and so many others have defined why safety of others is dependent on your actions. One thing everyone can do to increase all's safety is to seriously increase a distance in front when the fool behind tailgates. If necessary, everyone goes slower because of that tailgater.

Same applies to stopping at traffic lights. If you stop without seeing the entire vehicle in front, then you have seriously diminished safety of you, your passengers, the guy in front, and even pedestrians. It makes zero sense to pull up close to a vehicle stopped in front. If you cannot see where his tires touch the road, then you are seriously too close.

Obviously, don't watch only a vehicle before you. Safety means also watching at least two vehicles in front of that vehicle. Otherwise, all but expect to be rear ended.

And finally, red cannot be seen through inclement weather. Engineers put orange rear turn and emergency flashers on cars because red is not easily seen in fog, snow, sleet, heavy rain, and other adverse conditions. Orange cuts through bad weather. If adverse weather (or other conditions) causes serious speed reduction, then power those orange flashers. Red lights will be the last light seen in adverse weather by oncoming drivers. You should be able to hit that emergency flasher button without looking. Because an orange light is essential to your safety.

Only reason for crash discussions is to learn how not to be another victim. Unfortunately too many reporters are enthralled by their emotions. Forget what the purpose of their news report really is. How many reporters bother to discuss a major safety difference between red and orange lights?