I've heard that if while in traffic and you see a car coming up behind you and you know you are about to get rear ended you quickly move your car forward to touch the car in front of you. If you have direct contact with the car in front then the energy from the collision will transfer through the two cars and stop you from damaging the car in front of YOU. The car in front, however, will of course tranfer all that energy into the next car, but your car is only damaged in the back. What do you think?

I've heard something similar. That if a car is about to rear end you and your stopped, to take your foot off the break. But I would imagine that the impulse of the impact would make little difference. It would be a good one to try!

I always wondered which would be better in avoiding hitting the car infront of you if you knew you were going to get rear-ended: 1. push your foot as hard as you can on the brake, or 2. put the car into park with the hand brake on?

None of the above. To lessen the damage to your car’s rear, the best thing to do would be to put the car in neutral. But then you’ll be rolling, possibly out of control. Not really a good idea.

As long as you’re not going to die, if you can’t get out of the way, then do nothing. The other driver’s at fault, so his insurance will pay for your damage.

quote:

Originally posted by ratranger:
.....As long as you’re not going to die, if you can’t get out of the way, then do nothing. The other driver’s at fault, so his insurance will pay for your damage.

For once you and I agree.

Sounds reasonable, since the airplane crash position episode showed that when you press your head against the seat in front of you, the g-forces on your head are decresed to survivable levels. But, letting your head whack the seat in front of you during the crash made for over 100 g's, and a fatality.

One problem with the double car gets rear ended by a third car thing. More energy will be transfered to your trunk, and less energy will go to accelerating your vehicle. So, more damage for your rear, less for the guy in front of you. But, at least you'll avoid a lot of front end damage and an airbag deployment.

It will I suspect depend on the vehicles involved, speed of the vehilces and the particular circumstances.

I have been in a situation where I was stopped at a intersection at a red light (no cars in front to try the subject of this thread on) and could see a driver approaching from behind at 60 k/hr (driver was on a mobile telephone as it turned out). The intersection ahead was busy so, as I suspect most people would do in these circumstances, I simply pulled on the handbrake hard and stood on the brakes as hard as possible and braced myself against the back of the seat waiting for the inevitable.

I was driving a 1980 Mitsubishi LC Lancer (name in Australia but a.k.a a Mitsubishi Celeste or Plymouth/Dodge Arrow) and the car that hit me was the then latest 1995 Holden or Ford Utility with a lowered suspension and a low sloping nose (it belonged to a tyre company and was also a promotional vehicle). I was luckly as the car behind braked just before it hit, skidded then ploughed through my bumper and rear valance panel hitting my rear wheels lifting my car up onto its bonnet (very scary - it felt a lot higher and like I was being flipped over at the time). The damage to my car was minor compared to the car behind me although my rear wheel bearings also failed shortly after I fixed the panels. With hindsight I think what I did was luckily the right thing as the combination of a large, heavy low nosed car hitting a light old fashioned relatively high off the ground car with me breaking heavily meant that instead of being pushed all the way into the busy intersection the larger car essentially went under my car's rear moving me forward only a about 5 feet. It was luck not planning and I think I did what anyone in the circumstances would instictivly do and at the time. I actually thought it was inevitable that regardless I was going to be pushed into the intersection and things were going to be a lot worse. If there had been a car in front of em I suspect I actually may have been flipped over when the other car hit me as perhaps My car would not have moved forward so the lifting impact from behind may have been worse but who knows.

quote:

Originally posted by ratranger:
The other driver’s at fault, so his insurance will pay for your damage.

Not in all cases. Me and my dad were rear-ended a few years ago. It was raining so hard that even if you weren't moving it was hard to see out your windshield. Traffic was at a crawl. My dad saw this jeep coming behind us going faster than any other vehicle was moving at the time. There was not a lot of distance between cars so to avoid being pushed into the car in front of us my dad hit the breaks. Our car was totalled but we live in a "no fault" state. As a result my dad recieved very little in the way of compensation. We happened to be in a 1984 Oldsmobile. Compared to more modern cars that thing was built like a tank. Had that kid hit any other car someone would no doubt have been seriously injured if not killed.