3 ms·

The truck almost certainly had a good reason for stopping. The question then becomes why you couldn't you see what the truck driver had seen (debris in the road

The truck almost certainly had a good reason for stopping. The question then becomes why you couldn't you see what the truck driver had seen (debris in the road, a broken down car, etc). Obviously you can't always see around a large truck, but often times danger can be spotted by looking far ahead. For example coming around a blind cliff I was able to deduce there was a person who would be standing in the middle of the road because I saw a photographer on the opposite side. I started slowing and my instructor was like "what are you doing?" which then turned in to "how did you know a person would be in the road?"

ajmurmann 9y ago
That's just a heuristic though. Given humans can't look into multiple directions at once therr is always the chance that something unforseen well happen in the direction you just stopped looking at. If the truck hadn't stopped, maybe the car behind me in the gap I wanted to me into could have accelerated to closer the gap. Unlikely, especially on the Autobahn, but could easily happen in LA.
- jdavis703 9y ago
  You're right we can't see or predict everything. I just heard a story where a pilot had to drop a snake out of their small private aircraft while flying over a highway. There was a high likelihood that a driver below had no way of knowing a snake might fall out the sky and perhaps shatter their windshield. Most things that happen on the road though aren't that random. I once had a bicyclist coming down a curvy mountain road. There was something about their riding that seemed uncomfortable, so I started slowing down. The biker then wiped out and crossed over the yellow line, stopping a few feet from my truck. If I hadn't been proactively scanning and thinking about everything that could go wrong they probably wouldn't have been able to get up, and say "thanks for not running me over." I don't write this to judge you, or brag about myself. I've made plenty of mistakes myself. This is more a general lesson for people: synthesize all inputs received while driving and take proactive steps to mitigate potential risks.

ajmurmann 9y ago

That's just a heuristic though. Given humans can't look into multiple directions at once therr is always the chance that something unforseen well happen in the direction you just stopped looking at. If the truck hadn't stopped, maybe the car behind me in the gap I wanted to me into could have accelerated to closer the gap. Unlikely, especially on the Autobahn, but could easily happen in LA.

jdavis703 9y ago
You're right we can't see or predict everything. I just heard a story where a pilot had to drop a snake out of their small private aircraft while flying over a highway. There was a high likelihood that a driver below had no way of knowing a snake might fall out the sky and perhaps shatter their windshield. Most things that happen on the road though aren't that random. I once had a bicyclist coming down a curvy mountain road. There was something about their riding that seemed uncomfortable, so I started slowing down. The biker then wiped out and crossed over the yellow line, stopping a few feet from my truck. If I hadn't been proactively scanning and thinking about everything that could go wrong they probably wouldn't have been able to get up, and say "thanks for not running me over." I don't write this to judge you, or brag about myself. I've made plenty of mistakes myself. This is more a general lesson for people: synthesize all inputs received while driving and take proactive steps to mitigate potential risks.