Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by throwaway426079 1125 days ago
If I went 15 slower, there would have been no accident. The whole thing wasn't even my fault.

This seems contradictory. Do you mean the other driver was more at fault?

2 comments

Probably in the sense that at a slower speed, op would have been able to avoid the bad driving from the other driver. Assuming that OP was driving at 60kph originally, a 15kph slower speed equates to a roughly 0.75 extra seconds of reaction time (assuming braking acceleration is roughly 7.5m/s2). Given that an average humans reaction time is somewhere between 0.25-0.5 seconds, that means 15kph speed difference would have allowed OP to react and affect the situation. Even at higher initial speeds, 15kph gives your more than half a second extra time.
I was driving the speed limit, and the other driver didn't follow the rules.

If I drove slower, I could have made allowances for the errors of others. Defensive driving is the best way.