kwackers wrote:Our reaction times are the same in all cases, we "adapt" by making sure we are further apart thus a combination of reaction time and distance balance up to make sure all is well.
Unfortunately some people's vision is not good enough to realise, when still at a greater distance from the vehicle in front, that they are following something that looks similar to the usual traffic, but is actually going much slower. So they hit it anyway. That will usually be a broken down vehicle, or it could be a truck following a horse-drawn carriage. That happened to a colleague of mine on the A66 many years ago, at Appleby fair time... Fortunately he had a posh car with ABS, which enabled him to keep braking whilst steering between the cones into the closed-for-roadworks outside lane... and stop as he drew level with the horse, which turned its long face sideways and rolled its eyes. Honest, I only made the last bit up!