I hit from the back when others stop suddenly, all my fault?

Question

When driving on the freeway the car in front of my went into a hard stop. I hit the brakes, the car rolled and hit the back of their car. The person in front of me admits to stopping suddenly and getting really close to the persons bumper in front of them. When I hit the car in front of me, they in turn hit the car in front of them. The first car claims that they stopped because the car in front of them stopped. Traffic on both sides of us were moving quickly with no stop. Who's all at fault?

Answer 1

You will be accused of tailgating.

Answer 2

You are.   You were following too close and/or not paying enough attention to stop in time.

The car in front of you stopped in time.  You didn't.

Answer 3

Sorry, its your fault.  You should be far back enough from the car in front of you to where if it came to a complete stop, you can stop in time (otherwise known as the 2 second rule).  If not, you were tailgaiting.

Answer 4

This type of thing is usually has fault determined by the insurance company as a percentage. That is, they may find you 25% or 90% at fault. If the guy in front of you stopped very suddenly without cause he may be 10% to 20% at fault. Even if you can show you were not following too closely and you braked (skid marks?) you still will get hit with the higher percentage of fault.

You should be driving at a distance such that you can stop safely as necessary.

They guy that stopped in front of you, really close to the persons bumper in front of them, should be ok, unless you can show he is lying and really hit that guy. Then he'd have stopped more suddenly than you can be expected to. Except that you should know the guy in front was stopped...

Nothing like this is ever 100% clear. It's up to the insurance companies and maybe the judge.

Good luck.

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Answer 5

I N C R E A S E  your following distance...........

If you hit a vehicle from the rear, you are at fault

S T A Y    B A C K..................you can see better, you have more time to think and react in a safe manner that way....

Answer 6

While the cars in front of you MAY have some responsibility for the collisions, it is STILL your responsibilily NOT to follow so closely that a collision couldn't be avoided, just in case they came to such a sudden stop.

In other words, just because they came to that quick stop, does not excuse you from being able to avoid hitting them.  You should not have been following so close.

Answer 7

In this situation, you are. Almost any time you hit someone from behind in clear and dry weather, you are at fault. No matter what. My father was rear-ended by a GMC Envoy doing 40 mph towards a red light. His foot was not depressing the brake pedal hard enough to keep him from being pushed into the car ahead of him. He was determined partially at fault for the resulting collision because he theoretically did not leave enough space between his and the next vehicle. Though the damage was minor on his front end (just scratched paint), it was reported with the rest of the case.

You should leave enough room to stop safely no matter what. Check out the braking distance specifications on your car and then remember that when you're doing 60, you will need X feet to stop safely.

It was nice of the guy ahead of you to admit that he stopped hard but the bottom line is that you are at fault. These things happen and you learn to be a better driver as a result. Almost the exact same situation occurred to me one year ago and I was determined to be at fault. It's not fun but that's how it goes.

Answer 8

you have a lot of people on answeres who think anytime you are hit from behind it is automatically that drivers fault. not so let your ins. carrier do their job and sort it out.

Answer 9

sounds like everybody's at fault. one for stopping suddenly, but, more likely, everybody else is more to blame for following too closely (you in particular)

Answer 10

If your car was the first to hit another car you may be considered the driver at fault.

The general rule for spacing on highway driving is to leave one car space between the two cars for each 10 miles per hour of speed that your car is traveling.   (At 60 miles an hour you should leave 6 car lengths between the cars).  

I recognize that many cars don’t follow that rule, especially during rush hours, but it is a good practice to protect your own safety!

Answer 11

pray to god u have good insurance ur fault or not ur rate is going up. but most likely each driver should be in charge of their car so the first person should be at fault for neglegence. but everyone is in some way responsible. Especialy if u were tailgating it sucks but thats the law. some states have no fault insurance which would save u some guilt. More advice find someone to fix ur bumper.

Answer 12

Every time I have known someone hitting someone from behind it has been their fault for following too close.  The vehicle in front of you will probably get the blame for hitting the car in front of them and you will get the blame for following too close and not being able to stop and hitting the car in front of you.  I know it doesn't seem fair but most insurance companies do it this way.  I am surprised there were no tickets issued.