Is a controlled stop after a collision from behind easier going slow or fast?

You seem to be getting upset that you aren't getting the answer you're looking for (or simply that your thread was relocated).

To me this indicates a 'control issue' relegated to the personal level.

Bottom line: The only thing you can do to decrease the chances of getting pegged in the trailer is to increase your following distance - which means SLOW DOWN - and let that gap develop...... Getting all worked up about how god-#### bad others driver (and that's a given, and it isn't going away) won't serve you well. Nor, does it seem, understanding the physics behind getting rear ended will either.

Sometimes, like the bumper sticker attests: #### Happens. And as long as you aren't the ####-starter, why must you occupy your mental space with it?

 

Whoa there bucky, that's insulting.

Some of us know more than the average trucker, through practical experience like me. I worked as an intern at GM and later as a contracted employee. They had a program setup for just this question and the conclusion is what I posted - there are too many variables to indicate an average outcome or an average scenario, in other words you can't predict the reaction of the objects because of the environment of those objects are in at the time of the event, they play an exclusive roll in the outcome of the event. Physics has 90% to do with it, the other 10% is the skills and the reaction to the possibility of the event by the driver.

To me to give some drivers the idea that they can adjust in a split second their truck to minimize a possible damaging outcome may be the wrong thing to do and the reason why the training gives an edge but not the control that sometimes is needed.

 

Every situation is different.If someone is traveling 100 mph do you actually think he's going to live if he hits you no matter how fast or slow you're going?Also how often have you seen someone like that on our roads?The yrs I drove trk I never have.

 

Exactly!!!!!!!!!!Other motorist aren't going to go out of there way to save you.

 

Except, that is exactly what it will do. The amount of force transferred from a fast vehicle to a slow one is directly related to the difference in speed, or rather, inertia, which is simply a function of speed and mass. It's basic physics. Granted, someone doing 80 hitting someone doing 75, that 5 mph might not make much of a difference, BUT it also might make enough of a difference for no loss of control or no accident whatsoever. But then, speeding up to avoid an accident might also mean you causing another accident, which is where knowing your outs, leaving exit space around you, paying attention and plain old experience can make the difference.

I do agree that often the safest course is simply to keep doing what you have been and hope for the best, but not always.

Also, here's a fun thought experiment for folks. Which accident would be more destructive for a driver... A) Hitting a wall that stops your vehicle upon impact... or B) Hitting another vehicle perfectly head on, both of you are the same mass and doing the same speed when you impact but traveling in opposite directions.

 

B) because you have doubled the impact speed.

 

There is a flaw in your question, you are asking for people to assume a single outcome, but ...

'Which accident COULD be more destructive for a driver...'