Tail Gating

[youjustcomplain]

The things I took away from this:

The truck was getting tailgated for not passing the semi fast enough, so he/she paced the semi to enrage the tailgater. Based on the lighting the scenery, this went on for quite some time.
The driver of the pickup truck, appeared to, intentionally just miss the mattress in hopes to scare the tailgater, or cause an accident.

Yes, the tailgater is at fault for this, and ultimately is the big loser in this. I can't see any way that the pickup truck driver could be found responsible for this incident, even though he/she was a big factor in why the accident happened.

[LiamHaddock]

http://www.castanet.net/edition/news-story-175630-900-.htm#175630
Here in B.C. if you are slower traffic in the left lane, you are obligated to move to the right lane, regardless of the fact that you may be driving at or over the speed limit.

Tailgating or following too closely is epidemic on our highways. Some drivers do it because they are poor judges of visual distance, some are careless and others use it as a method of intimidating slower drivers to move them out of the way.

Wish the police would enforce this more but I doubt they ever will..just move over and let people pass

[Grandan]

Returning from the lower mainland on Monday I was introduced to an extreme example of tailgating.
I was the last car in a line of vehicles travelling in the fast lane near Abbotsford. I prefer to leave 2 seconds space between me and the guy in front but if you do that people zip into the short void. Buddy raced up behind me and I sucked up behind the car in front to close the gap, wife yelled at me so I backed off, buddy pulled from the right lane into the small space in front of me leaving about 4 ft between us. Is this tailgating or is this "yer an idiot!

[LiamHaddock]

Returning from the lower mainland on Monday I was introduced to an extreme example of tailgating.
I was the last car in a line of vehicles travelling in the fast lane near Abbotsford. I prefer to leave 2 seconds space between me and the guy in front but if you do that people zip into the short void. Buddy raced up behind me and I sucked up behind the car in front to close the gap, wife yelled at me so I backed off, buddy pulled from the right lane into the small space in front of me leaving about 4 ft between us. Is this tailgating or is this "yer an idiot!

Seems like a "yer an idiot" for sure..no need to be mad/cutting u off if u were at back of line..depending on how long the line is the guy at the front of the left lane slowing you and everyone else up might have been a "year an idiot to" he should have moved over and let the other faster drivers pass him.

[GordonH]

Returning from the lower mainland on Monday I was introduced to an extreme example of tailgating.
I was the last car in a line of vehicles travelling in the fast lane near Abbotsford. I prefer to leave 2 seconds space between me and the guy in front but if you do that people zip into the short void. Buddy raced up behind me and I sucked up behind the car in front to close the gap, wife yelled at me so I backed off, buddy pulled from the right lane into the small space in front of me leaving about 4 ft between us. Is this tailgating or is this "yer an idiot!

Got some news for you Grandan, there is no such thing as the fast lane. Right lane & the passing lane (left lane). So unless you were passing someone, you should been in the right lane.

[dirtybiker]

Seems to me that it becomes more difficult to pass people that are meandering along
aimlessly when...as soon as you pull out to work around them. they wake up,,,get a
head full of anal.
,,,,speed up,,,,match the speed K fer K of the passing vehicle and otherwise block them
from re-entering the right lane,,,,this is what causes plenty of the traffic congestion on
an otherwise open multi-lane roadway.

As far as the previous video post,

The pickup could have started it's pass at the crest of a hill, and gravity being what it is. the rig
started it's natural roll out.

Makes me wonder sometimes how the edumacation system has completely failed when
it comes to the teachings of most basic laws of physics.

Seems by the way people drive, a passing grade has rarely ever been achieved!!!!

I've stated it before, "even a physics professor will pull out directly in front of a 63.5 MT (140,000lb)
semi that is at speed)

[Omnitheo]

Lot of assumptions being made here. First of all the video is in the US, so doesn't necessarily follow BC's passing laws. Secondly it is entirely possible that both vehicles were already travelling at or above the speed limit. The vehicle filming the instance has no trouble travelling at their speed at a safe distance behind the semi, so it is unlikely that the semi was travelling at a significantly low speed.

In this case it is possible that the truck was preventing letting the car pass simply because the car was speeding. Alternatively, when being tailgated, you are supposed to slow down, therefor if he had been originally passing the semi, he may have slowed to a lower speed due to the tailgater.

I've encountered a lot of tailgaters while driving BC highways. It is particularly nerve racking as a photographer as there are many roadside pullouts or turn offs that I am wanting to take, however the vehicles travelling so closely behind me don't leave me the safe space to properly decelerate. Just the other day on the trans can, as I was pulling off at the Rogers Pass info Center, a semi truck blared its horn at me because I slowed to turn off, despite having my blinker on and it being clear I was decelerating. Seriously people relax, I am trying to get out of your way so you can go on travelling at 20 over without pressuring me to do the same.

In this last week across BC and Alberta, the number of glares, birds and horns I've received simply for travelling the speed limit is amazing.

[Grandan]

Returning from the lower mainland on Monday I was introduced to an extreme example of tailgating.
I was the last car in a line of vehicles travelling in the fast lane near Abbotsford. I prefer to leave 2 seconds space between me and the guy in front but if you do that people zip into the short void. Buddy raced up behind me and I sucked up behind the car in front to close the gap, wife yelled at me so I backed off, buddy pulled from the right lane into the small space in front of me leaving about 4 ft between us. Is this tailgating or is this "yer an idiot!

Got some news for you Grandan, there is no such thing as the fast lane. Right lane & the passing lane (left lane). So unless you were passing someone, you should been in the right lane.

Call it what you will, there were cars in both lanes, one lane was travelling faster than the other. I hung in there passing the cars on the right when buddy pulls in between me and the car in front of me because there was more than a car length and buddy took it. As is my habit, I move to the slow lane when I have passed the cars that are travelling too slow. It sounds to me that you are on the side of the driver that pulled in front of me. After pulling his spectacular maneuver, buddy proceeded to wind his way through traffic and was soon out of sight, endangering the llives of those along the way. Nice job!

[Bsuds]

Got some news for you Grandan, there is no such thing as the fast lane. Right lane & the passing lane (left lane). So unless you were passing someone, you should been in the right lane.

I'm not disagreeing with you but then why do they put these signs on the Hwy "slower vehicles keep right"?
They also have the signs that say "stay right except to pass". Would be nice if they were consistent eh?
Maybe we just need one that says Speeders and Tailgaters keep left!

[lightspeed]

First proper rains of the fall. On 97, leaving plenty of space between myself and the cars in front, numerous times cars pulled up way too close behind. A few times I see a cluster of 15-20 vehicles in front, all 10-20 feet from each other. Traveling at 80-100 kmh, there's no way I'm getting suckered into that rolling manure show. So I hang back. I don't even drive parallel to another car on the highway.

Clustering at speed, and tailgating, is moronic behaviour. Don't even get me started on the vehicles with no lights in murky visibility with rain and road spray. Probably got bald summer tires and worn out wipers, too.

[dirtybiker]

And yet, you can work yourself into an open position and, all it takes is a
random light to cluster things up for ya.

Then, it stars all over again.

[Grandan]

Got some news for you Grandan, there is no such thing as the fast lane. Right lane & the passing lane (left lane). So unless you were passing someone, you should been in the right lane.

I'm not disagreeing with you but then why do they put these signs on the Hwy "slower vehicles keep right"?
They also have the signs that say "stay right except to pass". Would be nice if they were consistent eh?
Maybe we just need one that says Speeders and Tailgaters keep left!

In that line of cars using the passing lane there are cars like me who will pull into the slow lane once they are past congestion. There are others who will carry on in that lane at top speed. I don't think there is anything wrong with staying in the passing lane as long as you are not impeding other traffic and you continue to pass cars in the slow lane.

[Dizzy1]

Passing lane, fast lane, left lane, inside lane - potato, potato. Would be more sensible on how to learn how to properly drive on a multi lane roadway than it is to bicker about names or justifying one's driving habits. I know its a lot to ask, but at least that would a step in the right direction leading to fewer accidents.

[my5cents]

Pretty clear and obvious. Pickup was not actively overtaking, he was driving parallel. MVA section 150:

Driver on right

150 (1) The driver of a vehicle must confine the course of the vehicle to the right hand half of the roadway if the roadway is of sufficient width and it is practicable to do so, except
(a) when overtaking and passing a vehicle proceeding in the same direction,
(b) when the right hand half of the roadway is closed to traffic while under construction or repair,
(c) on a highway designated and marked by signs for one way traffic,
(d) if necessary when operating snow removing equipment, or
(e) if
(i) the movement of a vehicle, or combination of vehicles, is permitted by and is done in conformity with the terms of the oversize permit issued under the Commercial Transport Act , and
(ii) the width of a vehicle, or combination of vehicles, or the width of a load on the vehicle makes the operation of the vehicle or combination of vehicles on the right hand half of the roadway unsafe.
(2) The driver of a vehicle proceeding at less than normal speed of traffic at the time and place and under existing conditions must drive the vehicle in the right hand lane available for traffic, or as closely as practicable to the right hand curb or edge of the roadway, except when
(a) overtaking and passing another vehicle,
(b) preparing for a left hand turn at an intersection or into an exit, a private road or a driveway, or
(c) passing an official vehicle stopped on the side of or on the roadway.
(3) The driver of a vehicle passing around a rotary traffic island must drive the vehicle to the right of the island.

Close, but no cigar

New section as of June 2015

Sec 151.1 (3) A Driver of a vehicle in the leftmost lane must exit the lane on the approach of another vehicle in that lane, if it is safe to do so, except when
(a) overtaking and passing a third vehicle

I didn't include the full wording, for example it has to be on a roadway where the speed limit is 80kph or more.

http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/LOC ... e%20Act%20[RSBC%201996]%20c.%20318/00_Act/96318_05.xml#section151.1

Notice it doesn't say "unless you are going the speed limit". It doesn't matter how fast you are going if a vehicle comes up on you, you must get out of the left lane.

The collision is 100% the tailgating vehicle's fault. He took the bait.

The pickup truck driver is an idiot, but other than a ticket for hogging the left lane he gets off. My philosophy is that I'd rather have an idiot driver in front of me so even when legally passing, and a much faster vehicle comes up on me, I'll complete my pass, signal and get out of the tailgater's way. Better that they are in front of me than behind.

Let's say the mattress was blocking the left lane...

a) I don't like driving beside a large truck, I like to have options, escape routes in case something happens (like a mattress on the road).
b) I come up on the mattress and I have to brake hard, the idiot that I'm "playing with" is right behind me, he hits me, I get tangled with the semi, tumble off the roadway, whatever. Yikes.

Driving is NOT a game. It's not our "duty" to "show" the other guy that he should be going slower, that's their business, they will eventually pay the price, just not at my expense.

Oh, and who is also at fault ? The unknown idiot that didn't tie down the mattress.

[Omnitheo]

Once more, BC laws don't apply here. This accident was not in BC.