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Comment by guiomie | Hacker News Reader

Well, technically he doesnt have anything to learn, because he is right. The person behind him should always keep enough distance to stop according to the speed he is driving. The person who rear-ended him is in wrong and is responsible for the damages.

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Given that in California a yellow light has no meaning other than as an indicator of a pending red light, a competent lawyer could argue that he has partial liability in this case. The driver's handbook suggests stopping if it is safe to do so, otherwise proceeding with caution; but this is neither legally binding nor was it safe for him to stop by slamming on his brakes either time.

But the legality of it is orthogonal to whether his behavior was right. It wasn't. It was unexpected, reckless, and very unsafe.

My country of origin treats a yellow light legally as if it's a red light.

Slamming on your breaks when you don't need to and forcing everyone behind you to slam on their brakes to avoid hitting you is a bad idea.

Smooth and predictable is safe.

Sure, but you are still relying on the fact that other people never make mistakes so if you are not keeping the appropriate distance you are counting on other people to drive predictable all the time which will never be the reality (medical emergency, dropping your coffee in your lap,...)

> if you are not keeping the appropriate distance you are counting on other people to drive predictable all the time

I'm not advocating NOT keeping appropriate distance. You should.

I AM advocating NOT slamming your brakes needlessly.

Even when keeping appropriate distance, when the driver in front of you slams on their brakes, you will need to also.

Yeah, but you have to be following the car in front of you at a distance that takes into account your reaction time and the actual braking distance. This time, the guy slammed on his brakes because of a yellow light which is maybe not a good reason... but it could have easily been someone running the red light, some kid running out into the street after a ball, the car's wheel flying off, etc.

Already addressed this. see https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17870971

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