ACD (Assured Clear Distance)
Question for the LEO's
- Thread starter Jade Tigress
- Start date
ACD (Assured Clear Distance)
Yep, it happened to me..Some Yuppie in his brand new Beemer slammed into my cruiser attempting to make a lane change...After I stopped I called in that I had been involved in and MVA and got out of my vehicle..I took about 3 steps and crumpled in pain..
Last Fearner
2nd Black Belt
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My thoughts are that a ticket should have been issued. It has been a number of years since I worked in Law Enforcement, but the Motor Vehicle Code in Michigan (and I imagine most states) provides for citations for just about anything. Officers have the power of discretion, but if someone is stopped for suspicion of DWI because they were weaving and crossed the center line, yet it turns out they were not drunk, they still might get a ticket. If they are disrespectful or uncooperative, the officer might decide to cite them for careless driving.
In the event of a crash, careless or reckless is appropriate. Simply failing to have your vehicle under control, or many other reasons as stated by other officers here. Excuses like, "the sun was in my eyes" doesn't cut it with me. If you can't see clearly, then you should slow down. What if it was a child that ran in front of your car? Are excuses going to bring the child back to life? You are responsible for the safe control of your vehicle. If you rear-end someone, you deserve a ticket unless it was beyond your control.
Some have commented that a ticket really isn't needed because insurance companies determine fault. The ticket is designed to penalize a violation, and discourage future acts of carelessness. I don't care what the insurance companies do. You cause an accident, you get a ticket in my opinion. I remember when insurance was an option, and many people didn't even have car insurance. Then it became mandatory and insurance companies started smiling real big. They hold out their hands for the money and say with a grin, "it's the law."
I don't know how it is in other states, but Michigan has "No Fault" insurance, so it does not matter who caused the accident from their perspective. Each driver's insurance company pays for their own damage. The fault is only important for legal purposes, and civil suits for gross negligence.
Glad to hear things worked out.
CM D.J. Eisenhart
In the event of a crash, careless or reckless is appropriate. Simply failing to have your vehicle under control, or many other reasons as stated by other officers here. Excuses like, "the sun was in my eyes" doesn't cut it with me. If you can't see clearly, then you should slow down. What if it was a child that ran in front of your car? Are excuses going to bring the child back to life? You are responsible for the safe control of your vehicle. If you rear-end someone, you deserve a ticket unless it was beyond your control.
Some have commented that a ticket really isn't needed because insurance companies determine fault. The ticket is designed to penalize a violation, and discourage future acts of carelessness. I don't care what the insurance companies do. You cause an accident, you get a ticket in my opinion. I remember when insurance was an option, and many people didn't even have car insurance. Then it became mandatory and insurance companies started smiling real big. They hold out their hands for the money and say with a grin, "it's the law."
I don't know how it is in other states, but Michigan has "No Fault" insurance, so it does not matter who caused the accident from their perspective. Each driver's insurance company pays for their own damage. The fault is only important for legal purposes, and civil suits for gross negligence.
Glad to hear things worked out.
CM D.J. Eisenhart
I'm pretty much convinced that this is the right way to look at it. It's built into the situation that the driver behind has control over whether or not a rear-end collision takes place, under most scenarios. Even if the driver in front breaks suddenly, you should be following the one car length per 10mph of speed rule and paying attention to the lead car's brake lights. So a rear-end collision pretty much has to mean that someone wasn't exercising due caution. There are exceptions, sure; there always are, but in most cases, negligence is probably the main reason for such a collision...
Blotan Hunka
Master Black Belt
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And your jurisdiction or State doesnt get any $$$ from insurance companies either.
Just teasing.
They've moved from the one-car length rule to a simpler one; the two second rule. Start counting when the car in front of you passes a fixed object (like a signpost), and you should get two seconds (one-thousand-one, one-thousand-two) before you pass that object IN GOOD WEATHER WITH FEW IN-CAR DISTRACTIONS. As distractions increase or road conditions worsen -- increase the count. I was driving home in snow a few weeks ago, and I think I had about 8 or more seconds between me and the cars in front of me before I felt comfortable.
That's been around for some time - I learned it in Driver's Ed, in the early 80s - 2 seconds in good weather, 3 in light rain, 4 in heavy rain or snow, farther if you feel you need it. It took care of all of us who were bad at judging distance.
I didn't say it was new... but there are still many people out there trying to estimate car lengths. The big headache with that rule, especially today is simply what is a car length? Is it a shade over 20'... or is it about 12'? There are "cars" today in both lengths. It also requires you to change the "rule" as you speed up; you go from 2 to 3 at residential/business speeds to 5 to 7 at highway speeds. With the two second rule... your distance is automatically adjusted as you speed up, but the "rule" remains the same.
Incidentally... just in the interest of making everyone safer drivers -- in my experience, the three main causes of crashes are driver inattention, following too close, and excessive speed for the conditions (regardless of the posted limit). All are in the control of the DRIVER... Today, driver inattention is especially prevalent as we try to do more and more while we drive. Please, everyone... Keep your mind on your driving; whatever else (even playing the trumpet... which really happened!) can wait till you're stopped. Keep space between yourself and the other drivers; just like in sparring, you want time to react. (A car moves 1.466 feet/second for every mile in speed; at 25 miles per hour, that's almost 37 feet; at 50, it's 72 feet and change... Human reaction time averages about 1.5 seconds to see, identify and act.) And don't be afraid to slow down!
