Reckless Driving Causes I-5 Truck Accident
October 20, 2008 by Grant
Traffic on I-5 was jammed both ways this afternoon due to an accident near the ship canal bridge, south of NE 45th.
The Seattle PI reported that a witness saw a white passenger car cut in front of a large container truck, causing the driver to swerve into the concrete median separating I-5 North and South to avoid hitting the car.
The resulting impact was so great that it knocked a concrete barrier into the Northbound lanes and caused a motorcylist to crash. The driver of the bike broke and arm while the truck driver managed to avoid any injuries. Wreckage from the truck and bike closed two lanes Southbound and Northbound express lanes for two hours, until a large tow truck was able to haul away the jackknifed container truck.
Without doubt, many Seattle commuters suddenly found their afternoon commute hopelessly delayed due to the actions of one person that unfortunately, lacked common driving skills. Part of the education of not cutting off other drivers is the realization that putting a narrow distance between two cars can both in harm’s way.
The average braking distance of a car from 60mph to a full stop is approximately 130 feet — or about 10 car lengths. This is in ideal road conditions with a skilled driver, as auto makers would like you to imagine that you can stop your car before hitting the driver in front of you.
In reality, major factors like reaction time, road conditions and driver skill can more than double the braking distance. Real life braking simulations with untrained drivers have shown that 300 feet is a much more realistic braking distance. That means over 20 car lengths!
The major point drivers forget about is reaction time. While driving, your eyes are picking up various bits and pieces of information, the most important of which is the speed of the car in front of you. The time it takes for your brain to realize the car in front of you is going into a full blown panic stop is only about 1.5 seconds, but during that time, your car will have travelled over 130 feet when at speeds of 60mph.
If you ask any driving instructor or attend a driving school class, they will always tell you to use the 4 second rule when determining how close to drive to the car in front of you. This gives you 2 seconds to react and 2 seconds to stop – avoiding a crash if 1) you are paying attention and 2) your car is in good working condition.
Most drivers have the mentality that the car in front of will react and brake in time to an accident and as a result, drive using a two second or shorter rule. Pile-ups happen when an accident suddenly occurs (like a truck jackknifing, for example) and you suddenly realize you are 200 feet away from collision. Even with lighting reflexes of Mario Andretti, you would just start squeezing the brakes at about 140 feet away, giving you literally no room for error. Add a bit of rain or 5mph more than the speed limit and it will get ugly.
Even if you do manage to avoid the truck, the driver behind you may not have those same lighting reflexes and you’ll probably get rear-ended.
In a future article, we’ll talk the reality of highway driving and how (if you must) to drive with a 2 second rule and still be relatively safe.
Comments
Add to the Discussion