I was in 3 car accidents over the course of three years, all of which the car I was in was totaled.
The worst of the three was one of those secondary, peak rush-hour accidents. I was on a two lane freeway (two lanes one direction, two lanes the other with a cement divider in the middle) around rush-hour with a pretty heavy amount of traffic but moving fast. I was going between 60 and 70 and in a really good mood. I’d just spent the whole day making music with one of my best friends with crazy vintage equipment and I was on my way to play a show that night. I was daydreaming and looked away from the road for a second, looked back and saw break lights. So I tapped my breaks, but then in a split second I realized those break lights were coming super fast. I did the exact wrong thing and slammed on my breaks.
I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was hit from both the front and the back. I was driving a tiny two seater from the early 90s, not exactly the safest car. I felt around myself and I seems to be all in one piece. No pain anywhere. Iwas able to squeeze my way up out of the car, bewildered. I didn’t seem to have any injuries at all. The car looked like a crushed tin can.
I went to the hospital just in case and it’s a good thing I did because as the shock wore off I discovered I had a bruised rib that was making it very hard to breathe. But that was my only injury. They gave me painkillers and sent me on my way.
I spent the next year in a fog of painkillers and existential despair and confusion. To this day I have trouble driving and I frequently question whether I’m actually alive or living out a dream in the dying seconds of my mind.
Help me out, with impact imminent, why is breaking hard the wrong thing to do? I get that it gives the car behind you just as little reaction time which might cause a chain reaction, but the end result appears to be the same to me?
NP. Yes ABS is designed to avoid exactly that issue, essentially by implementing in a mechanical way what drivers used to do manually - pumping the brakes etc.
I was in 3 car accidents over the course of three years, all of which the car I was in was totaled.
The worst of the three was one of those secondary, peak rush-hour accidents. I was on a two lane freeway (two lanes one direction, two lanes the other with a cement divider in the middle) around rush-hour with a pretty heavy amount of traffic but moving fast. I was going between 60 and 70 and in a really good mood. I’d just spent the whole day making music with one of my best friends with crazy vintage equipment and I was on my way to play a show that night. I was daydreaming and looked away from the road for a second, looked back and saw break lights. So I tapped my breaks, but then in a split second I realized those break lights were coming super fast. I did the exact wrong thing and slammed on my breaks. I don’t know exactly what happened, but I was hit from both the front and the back. I was driving a tiny two seater from the early 90s, not exactly the safest car. I felt around myself and I seems to be all in one piece. No pain anywhere. Iwas able to squeeze my way up out of the car, bewildered. I didn’t seem to have any injuries at all. The car looked like a crushed tin can. I went to the hospital just in case and it’s a good thing I did because as the shock wore off I discovered I had a bruised rib that was making it very hard to breathe. But that was my only injury. They gave me painkillers and sent me on my way.
I spent the next year in a fog of painkillers and existential despair and confusion. To this day I have trouble driving and I frequently question whether I’m actually alive or living out a dream in the dying seconds of my mind.
Help me out, with impact imminent, why is breaking hard the wrong thing to do? I get that it gives the car behind you just as little reaction time which might cause a chain reaction, but the end result appears to be the same to me?
They’re “brakes” and it’s “braking”. Yes, I know the previous commenter got it wrong as well.
The usual problem with slamming on the brakes is that it causes the wheels to lock up and slide instead of slowing the vehicle down.
Thanks, second language. Wheels locking up shouldn’t be an issue with modern cars equipped with an ABS, right?
NP. Yes ABS is designed to avoid exactly that issue, essentially by implementing in a mechanical way what drivers used to do manually - pumping the brakes etc.
I trust you’ve already seen Jacob’s Ladder?